


Of Tender Trepidation

by orphan_account



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Slow Burn, slight warning for like disassociation or unreality in a future chapter, theres also like. heavily implied rose/jeluka
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-16 02:56:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5810956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which a situation arises that prevents marinette from transforming when she most needs to, adrien grows a strange curiosity for the girl sitting behind him in class, and chat has a horrible phobia of spiders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Itsy Bitsy Spider

**Author's Note:**

> MAN okay, this is one hundred percent gefroren-zahn's fault. emily, if ur reading this, i hate you.
> 
> this is so self indulgent i cant believe this

When the morning started, Adrien hadn’t planned on clutching onto Marinette for dear life that day. In fact, he hadn’t planned on clutching onto anyone for any reason that day, but he wasn’t necessarily known for his good luck.

The day had started plainly enough. He woke up, got dressed, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, ate breakfast by himself (as usual), and then left for school. The air outside was crisp, but not unpleasant; it was a cool autumn morning in Paris, and the sun was starting to rise above the horizon to gently warm Adrien’s face on his way to school. Things continued to stay plain as he slid into his seat in his first period class, right in the front where he could see the teacher the best and sit adjacent to his best friend Nino. Swiveling around in his chair to survey his classmates, he took note of how the usual plain old things were still happening. Ayla was last-minute scrolling on her phone (on the lady-blog, no doubt), Chloe was nagging Sabrina once again (something about how Chloe’s last homework assignment wasn’t done on time and that Sabrina should work harder on it), and Rose and Juleka were quietly discussing about one thing or another in the back of the room (surprising, since Juleka hardly ever spoke a word). 

Adrien glanced directly behind him at the empty seat next to Ayla. Marinette was late as usual, of course, and Adrien didn’t expect her to come banging through the front door until five minutes after class started, also as per usual. She would come in with some excuse, a last minute delivery gone awry or her alarm not going off, and drift swiftly into her seat. She’d then hide in a book for the next five minutes until the attention wasn’t on her any more. It was the same as every day, plain and simple.

Well, at least. Almost plain and simple. Rose had brought another bouquet of her design to show to Juleka, who alway seemed to brighten up whenever Rose was around. Adrien didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but at the moment they were the most interesting things in the room to focus on before the bell rang.

“I dyed the lilies with a special food dye, so instead of being white they turned into this lighter purple. The roses were dyed, too, since you can’t really grow black roses,” Rose explained, pointing to the assortment of flowers in her basket. “I, um, tried to stay away from the usual pink and yellows. You know, try something new. But I was having such a hard time picking out the colors. And then I thought of you! I guess you could say that you were kind of my inspiration for this piece,” she smiled, straightening her back to show how proud she was of herself. Adrien couldn’t help but appreciate Rose for her reserved excitement.

Juleka seemed transfixed by the flowers, poking at them gently with a purple fingernail. “Woah….” she gasped, looking up at Rose and letting a shy smile escape her lips. Adrien could practically see the adoration in her voice swell up inside of her, resting at her throat as she looked sheepishly towards Rose. Her voice was naturally soft-spoken and hard to hear, especially at Adrien’s distance, but there was no mistaking the fondness in her voice. “Cool.”

Rose just continued to beam in response, practically drinking in Juleka’s praise. “I’m so glad you like it! I was a little nervous--it’s so different from what I usually do--and I really just… I mean…” Her voice faltered, searching for the right words. Her eyes dropped timidly to her hands, which were folded apprehensively in her lap. “You're my best friend,” she continued. “And I wanted to make something that shows how much I appreciate you.”

Adrien was too far away to hear her, but he could definitely see Rose’s name fall out of Juleka’s mouth. She was looking into Rose’s eyes now, unsure of what to say or do herself. A pink tint crawled across her cheeks, and it seemed as if nothing could tear her gaze away from the cheerful blonde. Her lips were slightly open, and Juleka looked as if she wanted to say something else but failed to come up with anything interesting to say. She never was a girl of many words.

“O-oh! That reminds me,” Rose spoke, breaking the growing tension between them before it became unbearable. “I almost forgot. I wanted to give you this.” She reached down into her backpack, pulling out a black rose that had been delicately wrapped in moist paper towels to protect it from any potential backpack damage. “This is for you, Juleka. I can’t just make a bouquet inspired by you and not give you a little something from it!” she exclaimed, slowly unwrapping the rose and handing it to her friend. 

Something definitely not plain happened then - a big grin swept across Juleka’s face as she accepted the rose, bright white teeth shining against her dusky makeup. She stared at the flower, and then at Rose, and then back at the flower before leaning down and sniffing deep into it. Her shoulders relaxed as she breathed through her nose, taking in the fragrance in one big whiff. Then, gently adjusting her hair, she placed the rose behind her right ear. 

If there’s one thing Adrien hadn’t expected to ever see, it was Juleka putting flowers in her hair. Not that it didn’t fit - the rose’s ebony petals looked soft and velvety, and made Juleka’s countenance seem softer by comparison. It was a gift only Rose would know to give her, and one that only Juleka could appreciate in return.

Juleka was practically glowing, which was hard for Adrien to grasp with all her dark clothing and makeup. He sometimes had a hard time discerning what the goth was feeling, especially since her bangs usually covered half of her face. There was no mistaking it this time, though. Juleka was especially ecstatic, a finger reaching up to adjust the placement of her new accessory every few minutes, as if to reassure herself that it was real. “Thank you, Rose,” she breathed, unable to remove the grin from her face.

Just then, a rather large disturbance happened in the front of the room as Marinette came charging through the front doors. The sudden sound of her entrance pried Adrien away from Rose’s and Juleka’s endeavors for the moment.

“S-sorry!” Marinette scrambled, several large textbooks swaddled close to her chest as they threatened to lose their grip and fall to the floor. She quickly bounced to her empty desk, unburdening her armload there as she sank into her seat. She huffed gently, and a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead before she caught it with her forearm, wiping it off. She had obviously ran the entire way to school, and Adrien wondered how she could make it such a distance so fast without losing any of her books. He was kind of impressed.

All of Marinette’s fumbling got Ayla’s attention off her phone and onto her. “Marinette! You aren’t late for once!” she teased, nudging her softly in the ribs with her elbow. 

“Haha,” Marinette huffed sarcastically, and Adrien could almost feel her roll her eyes. “You try carrying two dozen cupcakes across the city while carrying a load of textbooks and supplies,” she huffed. “I almost fell halfway to the customers house and nearly squashed the order.” She organized her books on her desk, and pulled out a pencil from her backpack, her eyes fluttering closed as if she had a hard time keeping them open. Adrien couldn’t help but notice her shoulders sag, and he wondered about exactly how much sleep she had gotten last night. She couldn’t have woken up any later than after dawn, otherwise she wouldn’t have enough time to deliver cupcakes and still make it to school on time.

Truth be told, he was feeling pretty drained himself. Ladybug and Chat Noire had stayed up pretty late the night before dealing with an akuma that could turn into shadow. Any time they got their hands on it, it would just sink right through their fingers, eluding them time and time again. Ladybug had finally used her lucky charm to summon a flashlight, cornering it in an alley, and the fight was over right after that. But they had spent an hour chasing the thing down before that, and really all they wanted to do was go to bed.

Adrien absent-mindedly wondered how Ladybug was holding up this morning, and if she got to sleep in at all. He wouldn’t mind catching a few extra Z’s himself. He was going to be really jealous if he found out that she got to steal a catnap while he was forced to go to school so early in the morning. Not that he minded school - school was where his friends were, and it was a good escape from home for the most part. He just wished it was more accommodating to the lives of secret teenage superheroes who didn’t get any sleep due to evil running amuck in the streets at two in the morning.

The bell rang out somewhere above him, signaling the beginning of class. Adrien turned around to look at Marinette. “Well, looks like you were just in time for class to start. I was really expecting you to come in late like you always do,” he smiled sheepishly at her. He was trying to express a sort of ‘good morning, I acknowledge your existence’ to her before the teacher started the lesson.

Marinette’s eyes went wide, and a hand shot up to scratch the back of her head. He could tell she was trying to act as casual as she possibly could. “O-oh, well, I j-just, you know…” she stammered, looking anywhere except for at Adrien. “It’s just, uh… You know. Mornings,” she gulped, as if it were a punchline. She shrugged and gave him a nervous giggle, a furious blush rushing across her cheeks. Ayla shot her a concerned look.

Adrien gave her a patient smile. He couldn’t pretend to understand Marinette. She wasn’t somebody he would ever describe as ‘shy’. In fact, on multiple occasions, she was the one who stood up in the middle of a catastrophe to take charge and lead the class. She was easy to be around, and was patient with almost anyone she ever interacted with. She was also the most straight-forward out of anyone in the class, and was the only one that Adrien knew that could stand up to Chloe’s hostile nature without a hint of surrender.

And that was only how she acted in class. Adrien couldn’t admit to knowing her, but Chat could. And around Chat, she was downright sassy, full of taunting quips at Chat’s expense. She handled with grace the pretense of danger when most others would cripple under the strain; Adrien included. Without his miraculous, he felt defenseless against any peril he would normally rush right into with his mask on. Marinette didn’t have that protection, and yet she still sacrificed herself in lieu of protecting her peers at the drop of the hat. Like it came naturally to her, like it didn’t even cross her mind that she could get seriously hurt, like she cared about her friends more than she cared about herself.

And whenever Adrien spoke to her, she choked. She clambered, she scrambled, she struggled to grasp at her words. Her face would turn as red as a beet, and her body language would scream ‘anxiety’. The girl who couldn’t possibly be afraid of anything would melt the minute he laid eyes on her. And Adrien couldn’t understand why. What was it about him that made her that way? What did he do wrong? Marinette was delightful, and all he wanted to do was get to know the girl that sat behind him in class without scaring her out of her skin.

“Yeah, I get that,” he chuckled, trying to carry the conversation as far as he could before he scared her off. “I have a hard tim-”

“EEK!”

Suddenly, a loud shrill pierced the room. Both Adrien’s and Marinette’s heads shot back to look at the source, only to see Rose bolting up out of her chair and stumbling as far back away from Juleka as she could. Her arms rose up protectively around her face, her hands balled into nervous fists. Her entire body looked tense, knees wobbling, and her face looked as pale as a ghost. Marinette practically threw herself out of her chair and at Rose to ask if she was okay, what happened, what can she do to help. Adrien followed just mere moments later, and the class herded together soon after.

Marinette touched a caring hand to Rose’s shoulder, being sure not to startle her. “Rose, what happened? Are you alright?” Her eyes were round and blue with genuine concern, eyebrows furrowed, her lips partly open in anticipation. If there was one thing Adrien liked about Marinette, it was that she seemed to deeply care for the wellbeing of everyone in the classroom, no matter the situation. She’s even saved Chloe’s ungrateful hide on a few different occasions, although neither of them would ever dare to admit it.

Rose shivered at her touch, her eyes not looking at anything except for Juleka, who was analyzing the table as if it were much more interesting that whatever the rest of the class was doing. “S-sp… Spuh…” Rose spluttered, not able to get the words out herself. She pointed at the table, right where Juleka seemed to be putting all of her attention. The class collectively turned their heads.

Chloe was the first to spot the danger. She immediately jumped three feet into the air, grabbing at Adrien’s shoulders and ducking behind him for protection. Her grip was tight, and her shriek was daggers in his ears. “Spider!”

Adrien tensed up. “W-what?” His ears were ringing.

Chloe glared at him. “You heard me! Spider! Eugh, Adrien, take care of it before it lays eggs and infects this classroom!” She extended out her arms, shoving Adrien towards the desk until he was forced to press up against it, holding his upper-body weight with his hands on the top of it. Face-to-face both with Juleka and the arachnid.

He froze. He utterly and completely froze. He was absolutely petrified. The spider wasn’t even that big - maybe the size of a penny, or slightly larger - but it’s like his mind went completely blank. Juleka was prodding a curious purple nail at it, encouraging it to move a little on the desk. It skittered to and fro, unsure of where to try and make it’s escape. 

“Well? What are you waiting for? Hurry up!” Chloe spat, her voice dripping with venom. “Dispose of it! Kill it! Squash it like the insect it is!”

“I-uh, ah…” Adrien stammered, trying to muster up the courage to take care of the issue. He was about to take off his shoe when Juleka gasped and slammed her hands on the table, startling everyone.

“Stop! Don’t kill it!” She begged, throwing a protective arm around the spider. Her eyes were bug-eyed, and her teeth were gritted in desperation. 

“What!” Chloe exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air. “What do you mean, don’t kill it!? It’s a monster! It’s got too many legs and it creeps all over the place and I heard that sometimes at night they crawl into your mouth while you’re sleeping. If we don’t kill it now it’ll just come back later! We have to kill it!” Chloe was absolutely livid, almost vibrating with alarm.

Juleka stared at her with one light amber eye. “B-but… You…” Her voice got quiet, and she started mumbling so that no one could understand. Her body was trembling, and it was obvious that her sudden outburst of courage to preserve the spider had all but left her body. Her lower lip trembled, and she glanced at Adrien with a pleading look that clearly read, ‘please don’t do this.’

“But what!” Chloe taunted. “It’s Rose’s fault this monstrosity is in here anyways! If it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t have to be dealing with this right now!” She pointed an accusing finger at Rose, who was still backed up against the wall shivering with fear. “I bet you anything this stupid spider got a ride from her and her flowers. It was probably in your hair! You probably don’t even care, do you?” She shook her head in desperation. “Disgusting. I feel like I need to shower for you. I’ve told Rose before that nothing good will come from her flowers - what’s the point of them anyways? They just sit there and look pretty! Not doing any good! And now look, because she didn’t listen to me, now it’s brought this, this… This evil into the class, an-”

“Chloe, that’s enough.”

The voice came from behind Adrien, and it was so soaked with indignation that he almost didn’t recognize where it came from. The next thing he knew, Marinette had stomped right up to Chloe until she was practically touching noses with her. She was clenching and unclenching her fists, visibly trying to restrain herself from her anger, desperately trying to remain calm. “There is no need to blame Rose for this,” she declared, her voice full of authority. “Just because you don’t appreciate her hard work doesn’t mean nobody else appreciates it.” Marinette took a deep breath, closing her eyes and backing away from a flabbergasted Chloe. She pinched the bridge of her nose, and then addressed the rest of the class. “Bugs sneak inside all the time, this isn’t the first or last time this is going to happen. There’s no need to freak out about it.”

She turned to Juleka, softening her expression. “Juleka,” she spoke carefully. “Is it alright with you if I take the spider outside and release it?” Juleka looked up at her, wide-eyed. She acted like she was still processing what was happening. The anxiety seemed to melt off of her face, her eyebrows unfurrowing and her countenance being replaced with gratitude towards Marinette. Slowly, she nodded her head in response, but said nothing else.

“Alright,” Marinette uttered, mostly to herself. With one hand, she pulled her sleeve down to cover her hand, that way she could carry the spider without it touching her skin. She looked at the desk to where the spider had been, and -

“Huh? Where’d it go?”

Adrien had been so preoccupied watching Marinette take care of the class that he completely forgot to watch where the spider was going. His hands were still pressed up against the desk, and he felt his heart go up into his throat and get caught there. What was that tickling sensation on his forearm? His mouth felt dry as he tried to swallow the fear in his throat, but when he looked down, he shrieked.

The next thing he knew, he was clinging to Marinette.

He was waving one arm furiously, trying to fling the thing off of him as fast as he could, while the other arm wrapped around Marinette’s shoulders as if she was the only sturdy thing keeping him upright. His breath grew panicked as his heart raced, and through the mangled noises coming from his throat he could hear a voice trying to talk to him.

“Adrien! Adrien calm down! Stop moving!” Two firm hands clutched his shoulders, holding him in place until he stopped bouncing around frantically. Marinette was holding him there, her eyes wide and her lips in a tight line. “Adrien, breathe,” she whispered to him, sliding a hand from his shoulder to his chest as if to emphasize her point. Her cheeks were a deep velvet red, but her expression was on lockdown, and through the mist of Adrien’s fear he could recognize that she was exerting a lot more control of herself than he was at the moment. Her face was close, way too close, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off of her. He couldn’t focus on anything else, or else he’d focus on the spider and probably smack a few people in an attempt to shake it off again. He’d already made a fool of himself, and he didn’t want to make it any worse.

Adrien focused on his breathing, and he couldn’t tell if his heart was beating at a hundred miles a minute or if it had stopped completely. (That was the spider’s fault of course, there was no other explanation, and it definitely had nothing to do with how warm Marinette’s hands felt through his shirt as she felt his heartbeat racing. Definitely not.) He could feel Marinette’s hands wandering down from his chest onto his arm, never once lifting themselves away but keeping Adrien steady through the entire endeavor. She finally broke eye contact in order to search for the arachnid, her eyes dropping from his eyes to his lips, neck, chest, and finally to where the black spot seemed to be making it’s home on Adrien’s arm. Slowly she creeped up to it. Too slowly. The longer the thing was on him, the more the hairs on his neck were standing up, the more his nerves became shot. Suddenly he felt something move and Adrien’s entire body was tense once more, hitching his breath and holding it there for what seemed to be an eternity.

And then it was over.

The whole ‘spider on his body’ thing had only happened within thirty seconds, but for some reason it felt like several minutes had gone by. Marinette held the spider in the cup of her hands, and kind of stared at it for a few moments before fully realizing that she was holding a spider in her hands. As soon as that important information dawned on her, her eyes grew wide with distress, and she muttered an ‘oh my god’ before belting for the door to drop the thing outside as fast as humanly possible.

Things calmed down after that. Everyone headed back to their respective desks, chatting quietly about the excitement that had just went down. Chloe sulked back to her chair, complaining to Sabrina how unfair it was that Marinette treated her like she was the villain, how cruel, she’s the literal worst. Adrien heard Rose apologize to Juleka for being so frightened, it had just caught her off-guard, she hadn’t meant to start all that drama. He heard Juleka murmur that it’s okay, she understands, followed by a reassuring smile. Adrien headed back to his own seat in the front, but not before shaking himself off and rubbing down his entire body quickly, just in case.

Marinette returned to class a few minutes later, her head facing straight ahead and not looking at Adrien at all as she returned to her seat, her cheeks still furiously rosy. The teacher told everyone to settle down, and they did, for the most part. But Adrien felt distracted during the entire class, not being able to think about anything except for the girl sitting behind him. He swore he could feel Marinette’s eyes bearing down into the back of his head, and he wondered what she was thinking. Or maybe she wasn’t thinking about him at all, and it was all in his head. Maybe he was making this more complicated than it needed to be, and what had just happened between the two of them was just Marinette saving the day, same as usual.

Just as plain.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The lunch bell finally rang, and Juleka couldn’t wait to escape the classroom, to get away from Chloe. She walked with Rose to where they usually sat to eat lunch together outside in the sun, on the steps next to the flowergarden. The chilly morning had given way to a beautiful afternoon with the promise of little to no clouds for the rest of the day. Juleka took in a deep breath of air through her nose, enjoying the moment.

She really was grateful for Marinette. What she had done for her and Rose that morning was more than she could express in words. Juleka wished she had the willpower to stand up against Chloe like she could, to tell her off and get her to stop bullying Rose. But whenever she tried to talk, words failed her. They were there in her head, but they always eluded her mouth when she needed them most. Marinette was good that way; she always seemed even-tempered and knew how to cool down a heated situation. They didn’t speak much, but when Marinette addressed her it was always with patience and compassion. If Juleka couldn’t pinpoint the right words, Marinette could fill in for her, asking yes or no questions until Juleka could get her point across.

Rose was that way too. Juleka wished she could have been there for her more. It wasn’t right that Marinette had to step in, to save Rose from Chloe’s piercing gaze and harsh criticism. Rose deserved someone who could talk to her more, someone who could stand up for her or appreciate her more. She was small and happy and good, and everything that Juleka felt that she wasn’t. They were polar opposites, but Rose didn’t seem to mind; in fact, she was more than accommodating. For her last birthday, Rose had bought her more purple fingernail polish and some dark lipstick. She listened to all of Juleka’s favorite songs, even if she found some of them to be distasteful. And today she had even made a bouquet in her honor. She smiled as the memory popped in her head again, how bashful Rose had looked as she handed her the gift. How deep her periwinkle eyes had to be, to hold that much emotion in them all at once.

Juleka brought a tentative finger to the flower in her hair again, rubbing the soft velvet petals between her thumb and forefinger. Rose really was her best friend, and the most important person in her life.

“Juleka,” a familiar voice said from beside her on the step she was sitting on. Juleka turned to Rose, dropping her hand from the flower and into her lap. “It really was brave of you. This morning, I mean,” Rose continued. “Saving the spider like that. I never would have thought to do that, and I certainly never would have gone against whatever Chloe said to do.” Her voice was coated in honesty, and her gaze was locked to Juleka’s eyes, trying to read her expression.

“Really?” Juleka asked, completely startled. She thought she was brave? Her? The girl who never spoke up in class, who always hid her face behind her hair? Maybe she had acted brave, for a moment, but she definitely wouldn’t call herself brave. She didn’t exactly feel brave, either, not in that moment. Not when she had tried to stop Adrien from killing the spider, and definitely not now, not when Rose was so close and being so sincere and smelling so nice. She was definitely filled with anxiety back in class, but the anxiety she was feeling right now was completely different and somehow so much worse.

“Yes,” Rose breathed. She really did believe she was brave. Somehow that thought made Juleka’s heart flutter and her stomach drop at the same time. 

“Juleka.” Rose placed a hesitant hand on Juleka’s knee. “I… I want to hold a spider.”

“What?” That came out of nowhere. The idea was so ridiculous that it almost made her snort. Rose must have seen the smile tug at her lips, because her eyebrows furrowed and her lower lip pouted.

“Don’t make fun of me! I’m serious, I want to hold a spider.” Her face was absolutely full of determination, and at that moment Juleka felt like she would let the girl do whatever she wanted, no questions asked.

“Okay.” Juleka nodded, reaching for Rose’s hand as they both stood up. She was as soft as she always was, her hands dainty and fragile in a way that only a pianist’s hands could be. Her fingernails were trimmed but not painted, and Juleka was kind of nervous that her own fingernails would accidentally rub against her and scratch her skin. She led Rose off the steps and into the beauty bark of the flower gardens, crouching down and pulling Rose down with her. With her free hand, she moved her bangs out of her eyes so that she could see the flowers more clearly. Marinette would definitely have put the spider near here, she thinks. It’s nice, and shady, and the spider definitely has a thing for flowers if it ended up in Rose’s bouquet. 

Juleka tries not to think about how she must have a things for flowers too. A flower.

They were still holding hands. Juleka figured that Rose would have pulled away by now, but their fingers had interlocked as they searched together, enjoying the stillness of the other’s company.

A pair of shadows interrupted their hushed harmony. A sharp ‘ahem’ rang through the air, and Juleka glanced over her shoulder to see who was trying to get their attention.

“Looking for this?” Juleka’s heart nearly stopped, and she immediately let go of Rose’s hand, swiveling around to face Chloe. Sabrina was holding out a small napkin, crumpled up into a tight ball, and although it was meant to be intimidating Juleka got the impression that Sabrina wanted it out of her hands as soon as possible. Apprehensively, Juleka picked the napkin from her hand and gradually unfurled it, knowing what she would see but dreading it anyways.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the carcass of the small insect smushed between the folds of the napkin.

Her voice got caught up in her throat, and her mind whirled. In the corner of her eye, she could see the pained expression on Rose’s face, but right now all Juleka could think about was how cruel Chloe was, how much she just wanted her to disappear. The only thing Juleka could choke out was a small and almost indecipherable ‘why’, and tears threatened to push at her amber eyes while her bangs fell back into their normal place, hiding her face once more.

“It almost killed me!” Chloe snapped, obviously offended. “It was crawling on the picnic table, aiming right for me! Could you imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t been so brave and I didn’t squash it with the napkin?”

Sabrina raised up a finger, interrupting for a moment. “Actually, I was the one who-”

“Quiet, Sabrina!” Chloe stomped her foot, her eyebrows pinched together as she scowled at her companion. “Anyways,” she resumed, locking her eyes with Juleka. “It’s almost like you care about that stupid bug more than you care about me. I warned you that that thing would come back, and none of you listened to me! Really, you should be thanking me for this.”

“Chloe…” Rose warned, her voice tiny but full of emotion.

Chloe raised her hands in the air in a defeated pose, despite the fact that she was very much in control of the conversation. “Fine, whatever. I get it! Let’s just say that your gratitude is accepted and move on with life,” she sneered, obviously happy with herself. “I’ll see you girls in class tomorrow,” she taunted, turning around with a dramatic hair flip and walking off with Sabrina following her steps shortly after.

Juleka felt heated to the bone. Chloe was just downright sadistic. What made her think she could act like that? Especially after Marinette had gone to all that trouble to make sure the spider made it out of Chloe’s vicious and well-manicured hands. Somehow she found it hard to believe that the spider had found them and not the other way around; Chloe was exactly the type of person to go out of her way to do something this ruthless. Just thinking about it made Juleka’s entire body burn, and her face broke lose to a wave of emotions. The tears that had been pushing against her eyelids for so long had finally run down her cheeks.

Rose looked just as distraught, but despite that she still placed a loving hand on Juleka’s shoulder. Still holding the napkin in her hands, Juleka looked up at Rose to see such a concerned look on her face; her nose all wrinkled, her eyebrows turned up, her lips pursed to reveal her slight buck teeth. Juleka couldn’t help but feel that no one had the right to make Rose look like that, no one should ever allow this girl to be anything but happy, and it upset her that it was her own tears that caused this to happen. 

Juleka’s lower lip trembled, and she quickly used her free hand to wipe her tears away with her own sleeve. “S-sorry,” she whispered, “I… I can’t…” Her knees wobbled, and she felt the terrible pull in her stomach that told her that she needed to get as far away from here as possible, as far away from Rose as she possibly could manage.

Rose understood. She always understood. Nodding, she slipped her hand off of Juleka’s shoulder, and turned to give her more space. She walked several feet before turning to look at Juleka and giving her a compassionate and knowing smile, and then continued on her way until Juleka was all alone.

Her knees gave out and she was sitting criss-crossed on the beauty bark of the flower bed. Napkin in hand, she gazed at the broken spider, and wondered why she got so emotional over such a small creature. She felt it fitting that it would end up with her in the flower bed. 

So focused on the spider, she didn’t even notice the small flutter of wings next to her ear as it landed on the rose in her hair. “Arachnid,” a deep voice called out within her head. Juleka’s head snapped up, eyes dilating as the edges of her world turned dark. “How unfortunate to lose such an innocent insect this day. And at such a cruel hand…” The man’s voice was so silky and surreal, Juleka just wanted to agree with whatever he had to say. “Your passion for life has called out to me.” Juleka’s mind went blank. There was nothing but the voice. “And I have given you the power to use that passion to exact revenge on those that have done this wrong.” Her lips twisted into a devious smile. “All I ask is in return one little favor.”

Dark smoke entangled her, surrounding her until it was all she could perceive.

“Yes, Hawkmoth.”


	2. The Not So Itsy Bitsy Spider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> marinette saves the day once again and chat noire grows increasingly worried about her and her wellbeing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoop, heres the next chapter! i was hoping to get it done yesterday but by the time i finished it, it was super late at night and i still wanted to do a little editing and clean it up. so here u go, a day late ;P
> 
> also, i feel really really bad. honestly i never really planned to do much more with juleka and rose than what ive already written, but everyone keeps saying that they want more, so. im thinking once im done with this fic i might add on to it and show what those two are thinking, and how they officially... hook up B) B) B)

Marinette is starting to think that Chat Noir's bad luck is rubbing off on her.

The day had just been one awful thing right after the other. She woke up with her alarm blaring in her ear, eyes crusted shut as if her entire body was trying to tell her that she definitely could not survive off of only three hours of sleep. After sprinting through the streets all night long with Chat teasing Ladybug about her lack of nightvision, all she really wanted to do was roll over and dissolve into her comforter. Her muscles were stiff and sore from the strain of her superhero sidelife, and she cursed all the evil in the world for not having a bedtime like any other sensible person. 

When she finally managed to fall out of bed, she didn’t even get ready for the day until she chugged a whole cup of the blackest coffee she could manage. She didn’t even like coffee, but drastic times called for drastic measures.

The whole delivery thing that morning was it’s own kind of battle, and Marinette couldn’t help but wish she was fighting another akuma instead. She was fifteen minutes late, and the customers weren’t exactly thrilled with her performance, but she couldn’t really bring herself to care. Honestly, she was just relieved she got there with the cupcakes still in prime condition. She let herself have that victory.

By then class was almost starting, and Marinette was a good three miles from school. Marinette was starting to wonder if it was even worth going. She could just go home, but then her parents would worry. She could skip class, but then her parents would be angry; or even worse, Ayla would be on her case, convinced that Marinette must be out living a double-life and hooking up with some random hooligan from the streets (and she wouldn’t technically be wrong, if by ‘hooking up’ she meant fighting bad guys and by ‘hooligan’ she was referring to a certain infatuated alley cat). Marinette had to appreciate her for her imagination, if nothing else.

Marinette felt a sigh well up in her chest and fall out of her mouth. It would be better to just bite the bullet and tough it out, and hopefully no one would notice if she fell asleep during history.

Tikki wasn’t too happy about it - she was just as tired as Marinette after the fiasco with the shadow akuma, after all - but if she had even the smallest chance to make it to school without getting in trouble, she’d have to rely on Ladybug. With her spots on, she could dash from rooftop to rooftop with ease, and even though she still felt fatigued, there was something about the spots that filled her with vigor. She never felt more formidable than she did with her mask on; she wasn’t the inept girl in class that everyone overlooked. She was a voice that inspired respect from her fans and fear from her enemies, and she felt as if nothing could touch her. Even the problems of everyday life were pushed away in favor of her disguise; she was hiding both her identity and her personality, and she couldn’t feel more free.

But the spots always disappeared.

Class started, and the awful morning caught up to her once again; it was too much to hope that Ladybug could literally run away from her problems. Nothing could have prepared her for the drama that life had enlisted as hers to deal with that day, and she was definitely too exhausted to temper her anger at Chloe. It was a tiny little thing, but Chloe was a genius when it came to finding ways to attack and manipulate her peers. Her incessant talking demanded attention from everyone in the room, and her voice sounded like someone had stepped on a cat. It was giving her a headache.

Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to reign in her vexation and salvage what was left of her sanity. God, she should have never ran for class president.

What was previously a containable incident had quickly transformed into a calamity as Adrien jumped right out of his skin and right onto Marinette. He was absolutely hysterical, jumping up and down, his throat emitting frantic and mangled noises that sounded more animal than human. His grip on Marinette’s shoulders was steel, fingers digging into her like claws, and for a moment Marinette didn’t even know if she would be able to calm him down enough to help.

When she finally managed to get him composed, her heart threatened to either leap right out of her chest or drop deep down into her stomach. Maybe both. They were way too close, and Adrien was way too focused on her, his entire face frozen with concentration as he strained to look at Marinette’s eyes and nowhere else. Marinette steeled her emotions, her entire face gone frigid in the desperate hope that her feelings wouldn’t give anything away. She tied her mouth into a straight line, her nostrils flaring as she focused on nothing but the task at hand. Despite her hardened discipline, she still felt her eyes linger, and she was not able to control the lump that was quickly forming in the back of her throat. Her hands wandered down his chest and she swore could feel every tense muscle in his body as she continued to slither down his arm.

She could die. Oh, please God, let her die. This was the most embarrassing thing she’s ever done. Why did he have to look at her with such intensity? Marinette knew that this probably meant nothing to him, he likely had girls feeling him down all the time with how famous he is (she mentally kicked this thought to the back of her mind, resisting the sudden urge to throw up). Heat seemed to radiate off of her skin, and she couldn’t believe that there was no possible way Adrien couldn’t feel the rush in her fingertips as they brushed against him. Why did this feel so personal?

And the next thing she knew, she had the spider in hand. Now, she wasn’t necessarily afraid of spiders, but when she felt the black dot start to creep down her fingers, her immediate gut reflex was ‘drop’. She tore off her emotions and tried to find any last bit of courage that Adrien hadn’t managed to siphon off of her. She was almost done, and there was no way she was going to mess up and have to restart this whole ordeal. Marinette didn’t think she had the strength for it.

She ran to the flowerbeds as quick as her tired feet could take her, partly to get away from Adrien and partly to get this spider off of her as fast humanly possible. When the creature was safely deposited to the biggest rose flower she could find, Marinette figured she deserved some ‘me-time’, crumbling to the ground along with the rest of her resolve.

She sat there until her insides didn’t feel exactly like pink mush.

Lunch didn’t come a moment too soon. Marinette was so anxious in class, her eyes attracted to the back of Adrien’s head like a magnet no matter how many times she forced herself to look away. She was getting antsy, and she kicked her legs so nervously that Ayla had to place a hand under the table and on top of her knee to get her to stop rattling. When the bell finally rang, Marinette was the first one to zip out the door.

She pondered about whether it was worth it to skip out on lunch and take a midday patrol to clear her mind. As Ladybug, she had no problems putting up walls around her emotions, categorizing and dissecting each one until they were manageable. She was about to dig into her purse to ask Tikki if she could transform, but the kwami was rolled up in a ball, sound asleep and absolutely beaten by the double transformation she had pulled between the akuma last night and the bakery run this morning. Even if she was awake, Marinette doubted a third transformation was even possible; she'd overworked her companion to the extreme, and she deserved some rest.

So she'd have to suffer a few more hours as Marinette. It couldn’t be that hard; all she had to do was endure a few more hours of class, avoid Adrien like the plague, and let all of Ayla’s teasing bounce right off of her like rubber. Then she could reward herself by going home and dying on her bed for the next several hours. Perfect. As long as she stuck to this plan, nothing could possibly go wrong.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything had gone wrong.

Not five minutes after Marinette had set her goals for that day, a scream had penetrated the usual lunch chatter, leaving the commons eerily quiet as everyone apprehensively waited for the source to reveal itself. The tension was quickly growing, and along with it so did the dread in Marinette’s stomach.

The tension all but snapped as Sabrina came hurling around the corner, panic lighting up in her eyes. “It’s got Chloe!” She wheezed, obviously out of breath. Marinette inwardly groaned, pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes, as if blocking out the world would stop it from existing. If what was about to happen was what she thought was happening, she was just going to happen to snap someone's neck.

Five minutes. She couldn’t even have five minutes.

The akuma finally revealed itself, following in Sabrina’s footsteps. What Marinette saw was impressive, and she was forced to do a double take; she was wearing a dress with a swan-necked collar, dark grey and interlaced with the whitest lace. The skirt started at her waist, fluffing out due to the many layers of cloth entwined under it. At first glance, the fabric almost seemed torn, but an eye for fashion told Marinette it was actually webbing embellished across the top of the charcoal attire. The click of her high heels were emanating power from where she stepped, and her face was obscured with a mask depicting six extra eyes that almost seemed to be alive, blinking at her surroundings and sizing up her opponents.

The most prominent feature of the akuma’s costume, however, were the eight spider legs that had erupted from her spine, curiously tapping at their closest surroundings and extending themselves as if just getting used to their own existence. The akuma leered, teeth poking out from her lips like fangs. Mass chaos broke out as the students in the commons tried to hurtle themselves away from the danger, the akuma shooting out webs from the palms of her hands and trapping them like flies.

The pressure to transform was burdened on Marinette’s shoulders more than ever, but if she didn’t evacuate as many students as possible before the akuma caught them, it might be too late. She ran towards the nearest students, pulling them out of the gossamer that adhered them to the ground or tied their legs together. She counted in her head, numbering them off like the shepherd of a flock of sheep. Nathanaël, Nino, Alix, Kim, Max, Ayla (a small weight lifted from Marinette’s chest when she managed to pull her out of a half-finished cocoon), and a few others Marinette didn’t recognize; she transported the group out of the school and behind the gates, just out of view of the creature’s many seeing eyes. Marinette pondered for a moment if Adrien was anywhere nearby, but flung that thought out of her head. She couldn’t focus on finding one person when there were so many others who needed more immediate help.

She had hauled student after student to safety, but the akuma was quick with her work; soon, the entire courtyard was covered in a mesh of web, and the students that Marinette failed to save were being cocooned in the sticky lace. 

Marinette whipped her head around the corner, watching the akuma with concentration; she’d gently hoist her victims up with her spider legs, one by one, spinning them slowly until there was nothing but milky web to be seen. Then, like clockwork, she’d carry them up the walls of the school and lay them in a massive spiderweb she’d already managed to craft above the courtyard, casting a shadow on the ground like beautiful lace in the sun. 

Marinette couldn’t wrap her head around this particular akuma; she never uttered a word, staying eerily silent as she mummified the students. Even her footsteps were inaudible, foregoing her regular legs and using the eight new ones to drag her body around, clinging to both the walls and her own webs with ease. What was she trying to achieve? Marinette couldn’t think of one reason that the akuma would have to wrap everyone up in her webs, unless she was going to eat them. Oh, gross. Marinette really hoped that wasn’t what she was doing.

A small whimper caught Marinette’s attention. Behind a bush, on the other side of the courtyard - a small student, cowering behind the foliage and the flowers. Marinette wouldn’t have seen her had her outfit not been so pink and light against the darkness of the brush, but luckily she hadn’t caught the attention of the evil akuma looming above her. From the distance, the two of them made eye contact, and Marinette recognized the student as Rose. A rock dropped in Marinette’s gut. If Rose was there, where was Juleka? They always ate lunch together, and to see one without the other almost seemed taboo. Unless…

Marinette had the sinking feeling she knew who the akuma was, and she was definitely not happy about it. She had totally defused that situation this morning! What had happened after class that had caused Hawkmoth to go after her? Marinette was so sure that she had managed to save that situation without any ill feelings emitting from anyone, and the fact that she was dealing with another akuma attack right now made Marinette almost feel like a screw-up. This was probably her fault; she didn’t know exactly what she did, but she had to fix it.

If this akuma was definitely Juleka, then the chances were that she had already seen Rose but decided to leave her alone for the time being, which made saving Rose that much harder. Marinette doubted that Juleka would take her eye off her best friend - especially when she had six more eyes to spare. To make matters worse, Marinette didn’t have Ladybug’s yo-yo. She would transform, but at the moment there was no secluded area to change. Most of the students she had evacuated stayed behind to see if their friends were okay (except Ayla, who stayed for the sake of recording everything), which meant that Marinette had an ocean of eyes observing every move she made as she tried to get a handle on the situation. Not that Marinette wasn’t used to having all eyes on her; Ladybug always had the attention of the press whenever there was a local disaster. But Marinette wasn’t Ladybug, and it didn’t look like she could be Ladybug for at least another few minutes.

Well, maybe she wasn’t Ladybug at the moment, but she did have Ladybug’s wits. Scanning the area, Marinette quickly formulated a plan that would probably work. Hopefully. She bit her bottom lip, anxious to get this all over with so that she could swap identities. She turned to the group hovering behind her, silently mouthing the words ‘stay here’ and adding in a glare for good measure. Everyone seemed content to listen to her orders, so Marinette took a deep breath and took off.

Rolling from the gates and jumping from cover to cover, she tried to stay to the opposite of wherever the akuma was facing. Carefully, she picked up a stone from the ground and pried some webbing from nearby her hiding spot, wrapping it around her wrist like incredibly sticky rope. She marvelled for a moment just how durable the webbing was, and for a panicked second Marinette wondered if she would be able to unstick it from her arm. She pushed that thought away for now; she’d find a way to unwrap herself once Rose was safe.

She was close now; maybe ten feet away from where Rose was cowering. Marinette was testing the weight of the rock she had acquired, lightly tossing it in her hand to get a feel for the shape of it. Locking gazes with Rose once more, she said with her eyes what she couldn’t with her mouth, and Rose nodded, signifying that she was ready to move on Marinette’s signal.

If Marinette was honest with herself, her plan was the most ridiculous and cliche move ever - so she was surprised when it almost worked. She threw the rock as hard as she could across the courtyard, and it skipped across the ground with a quick succession of ‘thuds’. The akuma’s searching eyes all shifted to locate the source of the noise, and with a movement that felt all too familiar Marinette flung her make-shift rope at Rose, who had to cover her mouth to swallow the shriek in her lungs. Just as planned, the web had stuck to Rose by the waist, and Marinette swiftly yanked up her arm to reel her in. A smirk tugged at the edge of Marinette’s lips for a moment, and she wondered to herself how many times Ladybug had done this exact move on Chat to pull him out of harm’s way.

Unfortunately, Marinette had severely over-calculated how heavy Rose was; she was so used to tugging Chat around by her yo-yo that it didn’t even dawn on her that Rose could easily be 50 pounds lighter than him, and as such she required less force to heave her around. As it was, Rose flew across the distance with much more pressure than Marinette was anticipating, and the two of them collided at full speeds. Both girls gasped in surprise, the slack of the web conveniently entangling Marinette’s arm to Rose’s hip. Marinette tried to steady herself, to stand back up and get moving before Juleka recognized that Rose wasn’t where she was just a moment ago, but the added weight to her one side made it hard to do much of anything, let alone move.

At that point, there was nothing stopping the akuma from spotting them, approaching them, and mummifying them together for the rest of eternity. Rose looked up at Marinette, searching for any signs that she had another one of her brilliant plans, and the gears were turning so fast in Marinette’s head that she felt steam would blow out her ears. She was desperately blinking everywhere, scrutinizing her position and searching for an out when a black shadow flashed in the corner of her eye. Relief flooded over her body like a tsunami. It was about time he showed up.

“Hey, momma long legs,” a taunting voice echoed from above her, stammering just a bit. “I hate to fly by and ruin all the fun, but your w-web of terror is starting to b-bug me!”

If Marinette wasn’t so grateful for his presence, she’d kick Chat all the way to Greece. At least the akuma was distracted; she couldn’t complain too much. Besides, something was... Off about Chat. His voice didn’t sound right and his puns were almost a little too forced. Marinette grimaced; the sooner Ladybug could come in, the better.

“Come on,” she urged Rose, who had been paralyzed in place for the last minute. Marinette tugged at the web between the two of them, but she found that there was going to be no comfortable way for them both to run without getting even more tangled up. Instead, she scooped Rose up in her arms, and bolted as fast as she could towards the gate, where an army of students were silently cheering their escape. She should have done this five minutes ago, but she risked getting caught by Juleka if she had; now, she was preoccupied with Chat, who was dancing and weaving between her shots of web like a needle through thread.

When Marinette finally made it across the gate, she felt like her arms were about to give out. Rose wasn’t heavy in the slightest, but the awkward angle at which she had to hold her at was a strain on Marinette’s back. Even worse, she couldn’t even put Rose down until Nathanaël pulled a pair of scissors from his bag and cut the sticky web that was caked between the two of them. “No self-respecting artist would never not carry around scissors,” he had explained shyly to Marinette.

Feeling sticky but finally separated, Marinette turned to Rose. “What happened to Juleka?” she barked. She was starting to feel impatient, wanting to go help Chat as Ladybug, but she needed answers. Something that could help her fight off this akuma.

Rose’s lower lip trembled, and her eyes immediately became cloudy. “I-I… We were eating lunch, a-and Chloe had come up… She h-had a napkin, the spider, i-it…” She whimpered, memories coming back to her. “I should have stayed,” she sniveled. “I knew Juleka was upset but I left anyways, I thought she needed to be alone, I thought it would help her, but now…” A thought dashed across her head, and Rose’s entire face screwed up in distress. “Oh, god, what if she’s in one of those… Those cocoons?” Her shoulders seemed to concave, her face giving into her hands as she tried to ducked down out of Marinette’s gaze. “I should have stayed,” she gasped, her voiced muzzled by her hands but still sounding snotty from her tears. “I just wanted to hold a spider, I didn’t mean for this….”

Marinette’s head hurt. “Of course,” she griped, softly thunking her fist against her forehead. “That sounds like Chloe,” Marinette grumbled, trying to overcome the impulse to rip all her hair out. With an exasperated sigh, she laid both hands on Rose’s shoulders. “Look, Juleka’s going to be fine. Don’t blame yourself for this. Ladybug should be here soon and she’ll take care of this entire mess.”

Rose didn’t respond, but continued to look at her feet.

Marinette was about to head right back into the courtyard when a hand grabbed at her arm. “What do you think you’re doing?” 

“I… I gotta see if there are any more people out there,” Marinette lied, and Ayla squashed her eyebrows together.

“Girl, you’re gonna end up getting hurt. Just wait for Ladybug! You said it yourself, she’ll be here any minute. You’ve already done more than enough.”

Ayla’s worry for Marinette made her heart pang, but she really did not have time for this right now. “Ah, I… But if I don’t help them now, it might be too late! Besides, if I get some more citizens out of the way, wouldn’t I be doing them a favor? That way they don’t have to worry about us silly little people getting in the way.” Marinette’s eyebrows shot up, and her smile was so fake it hurt her cheeks. Ayla didn’t look fooled. She opened her mouth to say something more, but suddenly a deafening screech hollowed out the air between them, and Marinette felt the blood in her face drain. She didn’t hesitate, [using the distraction to pull away from Ayla’s grasp and run back into the field. Chat was in trouble, she knew it; there was no mistaking the cry of a frightened animal.

When she got into the courtyard once more, she didn’t like what she saw. Chat looked absolutely feral, large green eyes darting from place to place as if he was looking to escape. His chest heaved up and down heavily as he sprinted from cover to cover, making no attempt to get on the offensive. The akuma was right on his tail, always two feet behind him and quickly covering ground. The more web she distributed the harder it was to maneuver around without getting stuck, and Chat was looking horribly pale.

Despite running out into the middle of the warzone, neither friend nor foe took any attention to Marinette. Dread clawing at her heart, she bent over and lugged another rock at the akuma without thinking, desperate to get it away from her partner. It smacked perfectly on one of the spider’s legs, making Juleka lose her balance and tumble to the ground in a mass of webs and extra limbs. Marinette could barely even let herself feel pride for her perfect aim before the creature’s head shot towards her, a death glare from all eight of her eyes tearing Marinette down, layer by layer.

The only word Marinette would use to describe what she felt next was ‘yikes’. Chat screamed her name in distress, no doubt trying to get her out of the courtyard and away from danger. Marinette turned on her heel, bolting towards an alley that led to a different section of the school, and she swore she could feel the akuma’s breath hot on her neck. Zigzagging around the corner, she flattened herself against the wall. She figured she had a good thirty seconds before the akuma came crashing in behind her.

“Tikki, spots on,” she whispered fervently, opening her purse to speak to the kwami. Her nerves were on edge, and she’d feel a million times better the minute Marinette stopped existing.

The kwami peeked up from the bag, her tiny body wracked with anxiety, eyelids barely even opening. “Marinette, I can’t.”

Marinette may as well have been hit by a truck. “What do you mean you can’t,” she whispered just a bit more forcefully. Tikki managed to give her a look that said, ‘you know exactly why’, before the akuma came rearing around the corner, a horrid hissing noise emitting from her throat.

Marinette yelped, shoving Tikki back into her pack before the akuma noticed. Instinctively, Marinette ran for the creature before it could take the opportunity to trap her, sliding beneath her many legs and onto the other side where Chat was waiting. “... Marinette? What are you...”

Marinette ran right past him, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him along while she put as much space between the akuma and themselves as possible. Chat tried to argue, but as he glimpsed at the eight glowing eyes in the darkened alley his mouth went dry, and he let himself be dragged away by Marinette.

The akuma growled even louder now, it’s voice ringing out and causing Chat’s ears to twitch uncontrollably. Juleka crawled out from behind the alley, looking particularly wroth that Marinette managed to slip past her. As Marinette led Chat while they ran, she was looking at their surroundings, trying to string together a plan. Her heart was beating in her throat and her mind was foggy with fear, and she felt naked without her mask on. 

The silhouette of the web above them cast shadows down onto the two of them, causing eerie lighting to dim the mood even more. Looking up, she could see nothing but sticky white lace hanging by threads, weighted down in certain areas by the mummies of students who couldn’t get away.

Marinette stopped in her tracks, and Chat ran right into her.

“Chat,” she gasped, desperate for air. “Up.”

His eyes did a quick once over of the web above them before dropping back down to Marinette. “No way,” he argued, his eyes finally focusing. “You aren’t supposed to be here, I’m not going to put you in dange-”

A canon of webs was shot from somewhere behind Chat, whizzing past his ears. Marinette could almost see every individual hair on his head stand up on edge. Marinette fell forward and clung onto him, folding her arms around his neck and whispering in his ear. “Roof. Now,” she insisted.

She was almost worried that he wouldn’t do it, but Chat could sense the danger and sitting there arguing with the most stubborn girl alive wasn’t going to keep her alive for very long. She felt his arms wrap around her back, holding her tight as if he was afraid he’d drop her, and then she felt the rush of wind. Her stomach turned, but it wasn’t unfamiliar - if anything, it was comforting to feel for just a moment as if she was Ladybug, jumping from rooftop to rooftop under the protection of her miraculous. And then they landed, and she was Marinette again, and for a moment she felt like she wouldn’t be able to let go of Chat because if she did she would fall.

Maybe Chat felt the same, because he didn’t let go in order to talk to her, content to just lean back his head and look into her eyes instead, hands still firm on the small of her back. “What’s the plan?” he asked, hyper aware of the fact that the akuma was not going to be long behind them. He raised an eyebrow, and the smolder on his face looked strained. “I’m assuming you do have one, right, Princess?”

It touched Marinette that Chat would trust her so much as to ask for her ideas in such a dangerous situation. She expected him to do that for Ladybug, but never for Marinette; sure, Marinette had talked to him a few times as herself, and they even went on a mission together once. That felt like a lifetime ago, and she hadn’t realized how fully Chat had put his faith in her just from those few fateful meetings.

“I need you to go to the other side of the web and cut it loose,” she said quickly. “Let that half fall, and then pick it back up and head over here.”

Chat nodded, one of his ears twitching. “Alright. What about you?”

Marinette’s gaze softened, and she smiled genuinely for what had to be the first time that day. Patting the cat gently on the cheek, she relished in the feeling of his body pressed tightly against hers. “Just try to be quick.”

Chat’s eyebrows scrunched up as he tried to unscramble the cryptic meaning of what she just said, but he wasn’t given much time as the akuma broke above the horizon of the building, throat rattling as it enclosed on the pair. Chat made something of a whimpering sound before detaching from Marinette and scampering off to the other side of the building. The akuma looked like she was about to follow, but Marinette caught her eyes and she stilled her movements, content to see what Marinette had in store for her. So far so good.

“Juleka,” Marinette started off, keeping her feet glued to the ground where she stood. She tried to stop herself from swaying. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to listen to him.” It was supposed to sound like a fact, but it came more like a beg, and Marinette hoped that the akuma couldn’t sense the fear riddling in her voice.

Juleka narrowed her eyes, eight feet tapping closer to her to fill the distance between them. Marinette swallowed and tried again.

“I know what Chloe did, and I know that it was wrong. And I know that you’re upset about it.” Her voice trembled, but she didn’t dare look away. “I’m upset about it too.” Her hands were quaking, but she was surprised to find that what she was saying was the truth. She dared to take a step forward, and felt a little triumph when she managed to not fall flat on her face. 

“All life is precious, Juleka. You know that. That’s why you stood up for that spider. That’s why you stood up for Rose.” Juleka hesitated when Marinette mentioned her name, and she knew she made the right call. 

“That’s why you have to stop what you’re doing, Juleka. Please. This isn’t you.” Her voice ended up sounding more solid than she felt, and Marinette took her courage and stood as tall as she possibly could, hoping more than anything that she had managed to make it through to Juleka.

Juleka looked at Marinette - really looked at her - and a few awful, terrible moments of silence ate at Marinette’s heart, bit by bit. And then Juleka smiled.

It wasn’t a regular smile, though. It was a devious smile, one that raked it’s teeth across Marinette’s hopes, carving out a spot that left her feeling empty and cold and wanting. It was a smile that sent everyone of Marinette’s individual nerves jumping, sending shivers down her spine and through her toes and even lower still. It was a smile that dared Marinette to stay and listen to the silver in it’s tongue, and despite every impulse in Marinette’s body begging her to run, run very far away, she stayed.

She knew that wouldn’t have worked. She shouldn’t have let herself get her hopes up. In the distance, she could hear Chat summon his Ancient Destruction, followed by the hollowed noises of bodies being deposited to the ground. Marinette steeled herself, desperate to buy him so more time, no matter the cost.

“Oh, Marinette,” the akuma cooed, eight legs traipsing along, closer and closer to where Marinette stood. “You’re right. All life is precious. But I’ve come to realize,” she slurred, her voice dripping with rancor, “that some life is more precious than others.”

The fact that Juleka was finally talking almost scared Marinette more than the words that were coming out of her mouth. 

“Take you, for example, dear Marinette.” Her voice was liquid silk, surrounding itself around Marinette and demanding that she listen. “You take command without trying. You lead the pack without effort. If you asked a poor man to give his last penny, he would. You, who doesn’t even know your own worth, would shout praises to the lesser of us without lying. You are the life that is most precious.” 

Marinette knew what the akuma was saying was technically praise, but it felt completely wrong, and it sat in her stomach like a stone. Juleka was face to face with her now, spider legs encasing her and forbidding her escape. One of the spider legs caressed her face by the tip, and Marinette had to focus all her energy to stop between twitching and falling out of her skin.

“And then there are others,” she continued, and at this distance Marinette could see the fangs outlining her teeth. “The weaker ones. The ones that cannot pull their own weight. You should have seen Chat, before you showed up. Muttering under his breath for Ladybug, oh, where was Ladybug? Every time I made a move, I caused fear to well up inside him. I could feel it, I could taste it.” She licked her lips, slow and long, revelling in the silence. “A few more minutes, and he would have been a goner. That is, if you hadn’t shown up.”

The tip of the spider leg on her face pushed into Marinette’s cheek, and the sharp pain that followed surprised her, forcing a choked ‘help’ to come out of her throat. She could feel the blood welt up and then fall down her cheek, and the sting of tears threatened her eyelids. Juleka’s eyes lit up, teeth baring with excitement. She leaned in, her lips whispering deep into her ear. “And once you’re gone, nothing is going to stop me from tearing into that scaredy cat and taking his miraculous.”

Suddenly the world turned upside down and Marinette felt something slam into her right shoulder, pushing her down to the ground and holding her there. Her head hit the concrete of the ground and the edges of her vision went black. Through the ringing of her ears she could hear her name being called out by someone just outside of her vision, and suddenly her body felt too tight, way too tight. Marinette gritted her teeth, balling her hands into fists as she realized that Juleka was wrapping her up, feet first.

Everything looked like stars, but Marinette was too unyielding to give into the tug in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a croak and something that resembled Chat’s name. Above Juleka’s head, she saw Chat Noir’s shadow once more, followed by a blanket of lace that trapped both Marinette and Juleka under its sticky web. There was a mangled cry from directly above Marinette that could have only come from Juleka, and Marinette grasped at Nathanaël’s scissors that were in her pocket, determined more than anything to finish what she had started. 

Her shoulder ached more than anything, fire burning down her arm as she thrusted up her hand, cutting herself free from Juleka’s webs and reaching for the pitch-black rose in her hair in one fluid motion, ripping the petals off to reveal the insect that had been causing the trouble all along.

And then it was over.

Mulberry smoke encased Juleka as she returned to her normal self, complete with only two legs. She collapsed next to Marinette, completely exhausted from the burden of an akuma in her body. 

Chat was by Marinette’s side in seconds, worry and anxiety entwined with his voice in a way that made her heart ache. Her head throbbed, and there was the slight taste of iron in her mouth from the blood oozing from her cheek. Chat gently hoisted her up into his lap, gloved fingers running across her face and a gentle thumb examining her wound. “Marinette,” he choked, and through her half-lidded eyes Marinette could see his lower lip wobble. “Oh god, Marinette.”

Pain crept up along her arm and she struggled to sit up, cradling her head in her hands. She heard a slight ‘beep’ in the corner of her ear, and despite the dizziness in her head she recognized that Chat’s time was almost up. “Chat, I’m fine,” she insisted, but she couldn’t stand on her own, and Chat had to gently guide her by her waist before she made it up on her own two feet. Even then, she teetered, and her body felt heavy like lead. 

“My princess,” he mewed, and Marinette was glad that the original shock was over and that Chat was back to calling her silly nicknames. “I most faithfully disagree. You have a concussion.”

“Pff-ha,” she mocked, trying to keep the tension light. “Your blabber mouth is giving me a concussion,” she tittered.

He laughed at this, though it wasn’t as full of life as Marinette was so used to it being. The corner of her lips tightened into a frown, and she rested her head in the nape of his neck, closing her eyes and probably getting a few drops of blood on his suit. He wrapped his arms around her once more, making himself her constant support. His ring beeped again, and she knew that they were running out of time.

“What happened to the akuma?” she asked, and then - upon remembering that she probably shouldn’t know what an akuma was - she added, “That’s what it’s called, right?”

Marinette could feel Chat’s head move in a slight nod. “I trapped it in some webbing, it’s not going anywhere. I was going to give it to Ladybug when I saw her next.” 

The mention of Ladybug made Marinette’s heart throb. It must have hurt Chat something terrible to not see her today, and all because Marinette had been selfish this morning and used up the last of Tikki’s powers to make it to school. This all happened because of her; without Ladybug, there was no healing light - all the damage done to the school was permanent, and any students that may have been injured during the ordeal would continue to suffer their injuries.

The thought of injuries made Marinette’s shoulder flare up again, her arm pulsating as she held it closer to her, trying to nurse it as well as she could while still in Chat’s arms.

“What about the other students,” she whispered, voice low and full of guilt. “Did they…”

“They are fine, princess,” he purred, and she could feel the vibration from deep within his chest. “Thanks to your brilliancy. Your plan was flawless - even Ladybug worthy, I think.” He had meant this to be a compliment, but it only made Marinette wince even more with the emotional hurt. “When I cut the one side of the web, all the students that were tied up in it kinda slid down it like a side, all the way safely to the ground. And when you were, ah, busy, with Juleka,” he faltered, looking for the right words that could dance around the heavy subject. “I mean, that worked perfectly too. Sticking the web over her and trapping her, I mean.”

Marinette nodded softly, the breath that she didn’t even realize she was holding releasing from her lungs. She felt her entire body go numb, and suddenly she realized how very, very tired she was. All she wanted to do was stay in Chat’s arms for a while - his warmth filled her with helium, and being with him caused the pain to melt away, if only for the moment. Marinette gathered up her strength to let go of him, welcoming the pain in her shoulder once more. Sucking her breath to prepare to lift off of Chat, she grimaced as she tried to stand on her on weight once more.

“Woah, there, princess,” he warned, arms outstretched to be ready to catch her.

“It’s fine, Chat. I’m fine.” She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes, taking long breaths to combat the dizziness in her head. “Okay, take me down. We need to help the other students.”

Chat let a low chuckle escape him. “Think again, Marinette. You are going straight home and going to bed. The adults will clean up the mess. I think being a hero for a day constitutes a warm bath and some medicine.” 

Marinette groaned. She wanted to help out as much as she could - she was the one at fault for this, after all - but the message Chat gave was clear. She didn’t get a choice in this.

Carefully, Chat bent over lifted her up bridal style, cradling the back of her head to be sure that he didn’t do any more needless damage to it. The jump down was jarring, and the sharp movements caused an electric shock to jump down her arm, and she cried out in pain before she could bite her tongue. Chat just whispered a heartfelt ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again, obviously trying his hardest to be gentle.

When they got to the courtyard, everything was a mess. There were students and adults everywhere, tearing apart cobwebs to free their friends and family from its clutches. Everything was a mess of white stringed linen and people, but Marinette was happy to see that few, if anyone, had gotten seriously hurt. Emergency vehicles were driving in, helping some students get over the shock and others helping dispose of the extra material. 

Chat’s ring beeped one final time, and he carried Marinette over to a very cross Ayla, who ranted about how Marinette should have listened to her and not gone off and gotten hurt, but her words were fueled by worry rather than anger. Chat set Marinette down and said something about fetching Juleka off the roof, and for an ashamed moment Marinette realized that she had completely forgotten about her fellow student. A little while later, she spotted Juleka and Rose crying together, but there was no sign of Chat to be found.

Ayla forced Marinette to get her arm checked out by the paramedics at the scene, and after a quick once over they declared that she had just sprained her shoulder, and it really only needed to alternate between ice and heat for it to heal faster. After wrapping her arm up tight, the gave her a sling, and told her to go home and take some Ibuprofen for the swelling. Ayla marched her right to her house, talking the entire time about how worried she was and how Marinette should absolutely never do that to her again because if she did then she was a bad friend. Despite the exhaustion in her bones, Marinette couldn’t help but smile, grateful that she had such a sweet friend watching over her.

Marinette was never so happy to be home. Walking up the steps and into the door, she called out to her parents, who were working the bakery from the kitchen. After one glance they rushed over to her, demanding to know everything that happened, but Marinette was so emotionally and physically drained that she nearly collapsed on the floor. Ayla promised to tell her parents everything for her (she was the best), and sent Marinette off to bed.

She tried to sleep, she really did. But her arm hurt more than anything and all she could think about was Chat and how worried he was for her, how protective and endearing he was being. Besides, it was only six in the afternoon, and even though she felt like she could sleep like a log she really just couldn’t get comfortable. With a frustrated sigh she forced herself to get up, deciding that a long, hot bath is what she needed most in the world right now, her body still feeling sticky from the akuma encounter.

Marinette thought bitterly that if the world still needed saving, it could wait until tomorrow.


	3. Heart to Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chat is desperate to care for marinette, and the two get dangerously close as chat admits to some weaknesses of his own while asking for marinette's forgiveness

Adrien never got the chance to check on Marinette before Ayla escorted her home.

By the time Chat had safely transported Juleka off the roof and found a safe area to change back into Adrien, Nino had cornered him, leaving him unable to run and ask Marinette what the official diagnosis was from the paramedics. Maybe it was for the better; Adrien and Marinette weren’t necessarily the closest of friends, and ever since the first spider incident in class Adrien could tell that the girl had been avoiding him for the majority of the day.

It left Adrien wondering where exactly their relationship stood at that point - and the more uncertain he grew, the more determined he was to get to know Marinette just a little bit more.

“Yo, dude,” Nino said, snapping his fingers in front of Adrien’s face. “Earth to Adrien.”

“Huh? Oh,” Adrien blinked, forcing himself out of his thoughts for the moment. Nino had been talking for the last several minutes, and Adrien had been so preoccupied on his thoughts about Marinette that he totally forgot they were having a conversation. 

Nino chuckled. “Man, did that spider lady get you good or what? It’s like you’re going into shock or something. You sure you’re alright?”

“Hmhm. Yeah,” Adrien lied, nodding slightly. After everything that had just happened, he felt like gravity had just stopped existing, and he had to focus intently just to keep solid ground under his feet. It didn’t help that the entire school had become a giant spider's nest; even the sight of the webbing was putting him on edge, despite the knowledge that the real danger was over. Paranoia was itching all over his body, and he kept swatting at invisible insects that he swore were crawling on his skin. The sooner he got out of the school, the better.

Nino raised an eyebrow at him, obviously feeling dubious about his answer. “... Alright,” he said slowly, eying Adrien down from head to toe. “Anyways, as I was saying, your dad’s gonna hear about what happened today eventually. I don’t think he’ll like the idea of his perfect son being encased in spider crap any more than the next guy. All I’m saying is that you should head home and talk him down before he bans you from ever coming to this ‘danger-prone highschool of hormones and death’ again.”

Adrien groaned. It was good that Nino bought his bit about being one of the first people to get caught by Arachnid, but it was the last story he wanted his father to hear about. At best, he’d stop Adrien from attending school for the rest of the week, which shouldn’t actually be an issue. The school was probably going to be closed for the next few days as it was, with all the damages that needed repairing. 

The issue was that Adrien’s father would feign worry for his well-being and use it as an excuse to keep Adrien’s pretty face out of harm's way, all so that he could continue to be Agreste’s top model. And as much as Adrien wanted to please his father, he was getting sick of all the modeling getting in the way of the normal, teenage boy in high school life that he should be having.

“I’ll talk to him,” Adrien sighed. Boy, was he dreading that conversation.

“Good,” Nino smiled. “I don’t want to lose my best bro over a stupid lawsuit or anything. Wouldn’t that be a way to go?” He sighed, shaking his head and changing the subject. “First things first though; you really gotta get that injury of yours checked out.”

“Injury? Nino, maybe you’re the one going into shock, I didn’t even get…” A quick glance down to Adrien’s shoulder revealed what Nino had been concerned about; a few small but very distinct-looking drops of blood, stained on the collar of his shirt. “... A scratch,” Adrien finished, absentmindedly rubbing the fabric between his thumb and forefinger. The blood was dry, and no amount of rubbing was going to remove the subtle red dots.

Where had it come from? Adrien racked his brain over the day’s events, trying to remember where he could have possibly acquired the blemish. Something pulled at his memory, and he softly touched the skin of his neck, the recollection of the warmth that was there not too long ago hitting him like a speeding train.

“Marinette.” The blood from her cheek must have soaked through his suit when he was holding her. Panic nipped at his heart - if the blood managed to get through the magic of his costume, then she was probably a lot more hurt than Adrien had anticipated.

“Marinette?” Nino countered. “What about her?”

“Oh! Uh, nothing,” Adrien said, trying to cover up his thoughts. “I thought I heard that group of students over there talking about her,” he declared, pointing to a random batch of students who were definitely out of earshot.

Nino shrugged, not thinking twice about Adrien’s fib. “Probably. She kind of saved the day today. She was evacuating students left and right, you totally missed it. Had you survived a minute longer, she probably would have saved you too,” he remarked, and the irony of that sentence wasn’t lost on Adrien. A shudder traveled down Nino’s spine. “I really don’t fancy the idea of getting all webbed up like a dead fly. I’m sorry you had to go through that, man.”

“Was she okay?” Adrien asked, despite already knowing the answer to his loaded question.

“Uh, yeah, for the most part,” Nino answered, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “I mean, after she rescued most of us, she ran to go help Chat Noir, which Ayla wasn’t too happy about. She was raving the entire time she was gone, just absolutely furious. Honestly, I felt like she was more upset that Marinette didn’t take Ayla’s phone with her to record everything,” he laughed. “Anyways, a little while later Chat brought her back and she seemed a little beaten up, but nothing too serious. Her arm looked pretty wicked though.”

Adrien bit the inside of his cheek in frustration. Nino wasn’t giving him any more information that he didn’t already know, and Adrien was getting a little restless. “What about the cut on her cheek?”

“Her cheek?” Nino scrunched his eyebrows together, looking at the ground in concentration. “Huh, I guess she did have a cut on her cheek,” he said, examining Adrien once more. “How did you know about that?”

“Nevermind,” Adrien deflected quickly, realizing that he was giving away too much. He already got what he wanted; Nino didn’t mention anything about broken bones or stitches, so Adrien let that tide himself over for a while. But something was nagging him, itching at the back of his brain with a consistent worry. He couldn’t help but feel responsible for what had happened on that roof, and he wanted to apologize to her. And the only way to do that would be to…

Oh man. That was a terrible idea. Not that Chat hadn’t bothered Marinette before, but something about the possibility of seeing her tonight made the tips of Adrien’s ears go red. Just thinking about it made his chest seize up with guilt, and for a moment he forgot how to walk and he tripped over his own feet, catching himself before Nino noticed.

The more he thought about it, the more Adrien convinced himself that that was the only way - if he wanted to apologize to Marinette, he had to be Chat, and it had to be soon. Adrien felt that if he didn’t get this confession off his chest, it was going to leave him hollow; it would make him unable to even look at Marinette the next time he saw her, and he would risk distancing her even more. No, it had to be tonight.

Nino impatiently waved a hand in front of him. “Dude.”

“Sorry,” Adrien mumbled, blinking back to reality once more. “I’m not feeling well, I guess. I should be heading home.” His answer was robotic and forced, and he hated how he couldn’t mention the real reason he was itching to leave to his friend.

“Nah, dude, I get it. Get out of here, you deserve a good nap.” With that, Nino waved him off, and Adrien headed out from the school gates (finally, no more spider webs, thank god) and towards his empty mansion to find the fattest, stinkiest Camembert cheese he could get his hands on. After all the work Plagg had done that evening, it was going to take some convincing to get him to agree with another transformation.

Anticipation bubbled in Adrien’s chest, and his steady walk quickly turned into a hefty jog, which in turn exploded into a run; before he knew it, Adrien was sprinting down the streets of Paris, zigzagging through small crowds of people and racing across the pavement to reach home as fast as possible. His shoulders and legs ached from the previous strain of being Chat Noir, but at the moment the pain didn’t seem to matter as much as getting to Marinette.

The night couldn’t get there fast enough.

\-----------------------------------

He rehearsed his lines. Again and again, and then once more.

Chat could see it all in his mind; he’d start off with a joke, lighten the mood a little. Ease into the explanation, the apology, and graciously accept any judgement Marinette bestowed upon him. And then he’d depart with a wink, hopefully leaving behind the burden that weighed on his shoulders like a heavy load of bricks, and he could finally move on with his life.

Unfortunately, the plan screamed “mutiny!” as Chat finally reached her balcony, pieces of his thoughts falling out of his ears and making all of his delicate preparation go to waste.

He sat there for a bit, hunched over the thin bars of railing, emerald eyes locked on the trap door that would reveal Marinette’s room. He could feel the sun dip under the horizon behind him, and what little warmth the rays of light had given him had all but vanished as the moon shone in it’s place. A shiver crawled from the tips of his ears down to the end of his tail, and he realized that he would have to make a move eventually; Marinette would go to bed, or Chat’s disguise would fade away, or he would just plain lose his nerves, and he’d have to go home and think about what might have been for the rest of the night. And that just wouldn’t do.

Puffing out his cheeks, Chat slinked towards the door, rapping against it a few times with his knuckles. For a horrifying moment, he thought that maybe Marinette wasn’t there, or perhaps wouldn’t open up to him - but his ears attuned to the quiet shuffling of feet below him, and soon enough he heard the sound of a latch being fiddled with.

The door seemed to hover open, and a pair of searching eyes met his own. ‘You shouldn’t open up the door to complete strangers, you know,’ Chat tried to quip, but the remark was lost on the wind as Marinette let out a soft gasp, covering her mouth with her good hand, and suddenly Chat felt completely frozen in a way that had nothing to do with the chill of the air.

“Chat? What are you doing here?” Her voice was dripping with worry, and any stipulations that Chat had had about coming this night completely vanished. He opened up his mouth to see if he could finally get that joke out, but just then a particularly strong wind overtook the balcony and Chat could feel rain beginning to patter against his suit. Marinette instinctively grabbed at his hand and pulled him inside, muttering something about how if he stayed out in the rain he would catch a cold.

Marinette’s room was warm and comforting, the exact opposite of the harsh autumn wind outside. With a jolt, Chat realized just how cold he had become while sitting out there, and absentmindedly wondered how long, exactly, he had sat on that railing, trying to work up the confidence to come in. Rubbing the cold off of his arms, he took in Marinette’s home, eager to see what her life was like. 

The room itself was dim, with nothing but a lamp on Marinette’s desk and a few strung up fairy lights providing sight, but it was plenty enough to be able to see the girl leading him to the floor where pillows were strewn about. Chat kicked a few of them into a small pile and let himself fall to the ground, happy to finally have something comfy to rest on.

Marinette scoffed at him, but Chat could see the amusement in her eyes. “By all means, make yourself at home,” she chided, kicking her own pile of pillows together.

“Oh, you know how us alley cats are,” Chat countered, the tension melting from his face like wax, seeping down his spine and soaking deep under the floorboards, replacing itself with an easy comfort. “You should have known better than to invite one in. Now I might not leave.”

Marinette flopped to the ground in front of Chat, criss-crossing her legs and touching knees with him. “Well, as long as you don’t have fleas, I guess you can stay,” she laughed, small dimples exposing themselves on her cheeks. “For a bit.”

Chat got his first real look at Marinette since the akuma attack right then. His eyes glanced across her, taking in every little detail, bit by bit. Her hair was wet and down and loose, stringing to her face and neck in lovely clumps, and Chat realized that she must have just gotten out of the tub. Her eyes were big and blue, and even with the dim light of the room, Chat could see the ghost of a few small, pale freckles speckling lightly across her nose - something he had never noticed before, but found to be incredibly endearing.

Her smile pushed up her cheeks, accentuating the cut that had been made below her lower left eye. With a frown, Chat realized that Nino was not wrong when he didn’t mention stitches, but the skin around it was puffy and seemed slightly swollen. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, but blood pooled around the wound under the skin, and Chat could recognize the signs of a deep bruise just about anywhere. No doubt about it, Marinette would be waking up in the morning with somewhat of a black eye. Chat’s heart twinged with an ache he couldn’t describe, and he had to physically restrain himself from reaching out and touching her face.

Lower down, Chat noticed a sling wrapped around Marinette’s left arm. Bandage was tightly wrapped around it, and her body was curled inwards to protect the appendage. Through the fabric, he could see the curl of her fingers, and by comparison of her other hand Chat could tell that her skin was swollen and puffy. He couldn’t see up the rest of her arm due to the support of the sling, but he’d be willing to bet that the swelling crawled all the way up to her shoulder. Her arm had to hurt, but she showed no signs of pain besides the awkward angle that she had to hold herself in to avoid further injury.

Marinette looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue the conversation. Words between the two of them usually came out so carefree and effortlessly, falling into the simple pattern of teasing adoration that Chat had come to know and love. It was a relationship that mimicked Chat and Ladybug’s dynamic, but somehow it felt so much less superficial. There was something real about Marinette, something that Ladybug lacked; afterall, Ladybug was just Ladybug, nothing more and nothing less. Just a figurehead to the public, someone made to fix the problem and leave, never revealing anything about herself if she could help it. 

And while Chat adored her more than anyone on the earth, he couldn’t help but wish he could know her in a way that she wouldn’t allow. He wanted to know what she was really like, beneath all of her masks.

But Marinette didn’t wear masks. She was genuine with everything that she said, never acting two-faced or hiding the truth. She was clever and quick-witted, as well as the most passionate person Chat had ever met when it came to what she loved. She tried her hardest at everything, even if she was stacked against the most unbelievable odds, and she would never back down from a challenge. 

And while Chat admired those qualities in her, what he loved most about Marinette were all of her flaws; she was clumsy and sometimes even awkward, and the way she over-giggled over some things was downright charming. She often second guessed herself in class, and had a tendency to bite the end of her pencil when she was focusing. She wasn’t perfect, and because of it she felt so much more human to Chat than Ladybug ever could.

And Chat had no idea how he was going to ask her for forgiveness. He knew Ladybug would brush it off in a heartbeat, giving him more grace than he ever deserved, both because they were partners but also because Ladybug would shove away any risk of the start of something deeper, never wanting to become too attached to something she felt was so temporary. But Marinette… 

He never knew what to expect with her, and it left him feeling vulnerable in a way that he didn’t realize he craved.

“Marinette,” he started, and suddenly the temperature of the room seemed to drop ten degrees. Chat’s body seized in on itself, and suddenly he felt as if he couldn’t get enough air to breath. “I’m sorry about what happened at the school today,” he started, his voice threatening to crack. “You shouldn’t have had to stand in for Ladybug, and I should have worked harder to take care of the akuma myself. This wasn’t fair for you, I…” His voice wobbled, and his throat felt like it was collapsing in on itself. “I feel so awful that you got hurt.”

Marinette reached out with her good hand, wrapping her fingers around Chat’s. She leaned in slightly, and her eyes demanded that he look at her. “Don’t,” she whispered.

Her voice was soft but filled with persistence, and what little air was left in Chat’s lungs was knocked out with one syllable. Marinette’s fingers tightened their grip. “I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I knew what the risks were, but I took them anyways because I thought it was worth it. As long as everyone else got out safe, I can handle a few cuts and bruises.” Her stern expression grew a comforting smile, and her countenance lifted. “Besides, it’s not like it’s your fault that Arachnid decided to throw me at the ground.”

Chat felt like he was going to explode. “But it is!” he exclaimed, the tone of his voice breaking the hushed atmosphere of the room. “It is my fault! You don’t get it, I…” His hands threw themselves around, trying to physically grip the words he wanted to say to her, trying to express his distress somehow before his heart gave out on her bedroom floor. They finally rested themselves on his head, pulling the tufts of his bangs so hard that his jaw locked in place.

“I was right there when the akuma appeared, and I didn’t do anything about it.” Chat’s voice hitched itself, and the floodgate was let loose. “I just let her capture all those students while I hid on the roof, waiting for Ladybug to appear, because I couldn’t - I wouldn’t - face this akuma.” His hands slid from his hair to his face, clutching the skin there, desperate to get a grip on himself. “I was so scared, she was just so big, there was so many eyes and…” He swallowed the sentence before it got the chance to spiral out of control, trying to remember the point he was trying to make.

Chat looked at Marinette through the gaps of his fingers, wishing he could just fall through the floor. “It was all because of me - because of me, you had to go in and save everyone before Arachnid could hurt anyone, and because of me we almost didn’t get out of there alive.” 

His lungs felt like fire, and he knew he was speaking too fast - but he couldn’t force himself to slow down. He needed this girl to know how bad he screwed up, and every second she spent in blissful ignorance was an eternity of guilt eating at Chat’s stomach. His fists finally flew down from his face to clutch down on his knees, and his entire face burned hot with shame. He couldn’t look Marinette in the eyes, he couldn’t bare to see the hurt that had to be on her face. He locked his eyes to the ground between them, suddenly feeling desperate to hide himself from her.

“I was so scared,” he whispered, voice barely audible over the patter of the rain on the roof. “I just… I was frozen, and couldn’t move. I probably would have stayed on that roof forever, waiting for Ladybug to show up. When I realized that she wasn’t coming, I still didn’t do anything, I-I just sat there. Even after you started saving everyone, Marinette, I couldn’t force myself to do anything. I was so useless.”

He pulled his hands away from his knees, pushing his palms into his eyeballs as if pressing them as hard as he could would push the tears down, deep where they couldn’t resurface. The two of them were quiet for a while, sitting still in that fragile moment. It was as if even the tiniest noise would shatter reality like glass, and neither of them dared to utter a sound. When Chat felt as if he could breath again, he lowered his hands back onto his knees and threw his head back to look at the ceiling, forcing a small chuckle to pass through his teeth. “God, I’m such a scaredy cat. What a stupid excuse to use, being scared of a spider.”

He swore he could feel Marinette’s eyes looking at him like lasers, but the ceiling seemed incredibly interesting at that moment, and he didn’t dare look down. He was a coward in more ways than one, after all, and nothing scared him more than the idea of facing Marinette after what he’s done.

But then she started laughing. He almost didn’t recognize the sound at first - it was so unexpected and alien to him - but when he finally looked back down at her, the dimples were unmistakable.

“You know,” Marinette started, a snort bubbling in her throat. “I saw a cat eat a spider once. He just swallowed it whole. Let me tell you, I’m just really glad you didn’t attempt that, you silly cat.”

Chat was absolutely dumbfounded. How did she do that? How was it possible that Marinette was able to brush away all that built-up tension with just a few simple words? Just like that, the knot in his stomach had vanished. Marinette had replaced any feelings of doubt that Chat had ever had about himself; and in her own way, she not only acknowledged Chat’s shortcomings, but accepted them - maybe even respected them.

Chat was floating. Marinette had swiftly and diligently lifted the burdens off of his bones, and he felt so feather-light that he wasn’t quite sure that gravity was actually a thing that existed. She had forgiven him for something that she didn’t even believe needed forgiving, and for that Chat would always be indebted to her.

“Chat,” Marinette continued, using her good hand to hold Chat’s once more. “I don’t care what you think. You are the bravest person that I know, and I need you to believe me when I say that.”

Her voice was so raw with sincerity that Chat would faithfully believe in anything Marinette told him.

She took in a deep breath, and when she spoke again, her voice was steady. “I was in a lot of trouble, and I don’t think I would have been able to get Rose out of that situation without risking her safety if you hadn’t shown up.” She squeezed Chat’s hand, and Chat was starting to feel extremely conscious about the obnoxious beating in his chest. “You’re not useless. You came to my rescue when I needed it most, despite the terror. If that’s not brave, I don’t know what is.”

Chat coughed, his face feeling warm from all the kind compliments Marinette was paying him. “Well to be fair, princess,” he purred, starting to feel like his old self again. “My actions were hardly selfless.” Chat sandwiched Marinette’s hand between his own, running a thumb slowly over her knuckles. 

“When Arachnid started wrapping kids up, I wasn’t worried. Terrified, but not worried. I mean, Ladybug always shows up, and when she uses her Lucky Charm all the effects of everything, they just... Go away. No one usually remembers a thing about what happened to them, and no one ever gets hurt. But…” 

His voice trailed off, trying to think of the best words to use for what he was trying to say. He let his eyes drop to their hands, and he allowed himself to thumb slowly across Marinette’s skin as he memorized the cascades and valleys of her hand, small but calloused on the tips of her fingers. His eyes were lidded and heavy, and when he spoke his voice sounded husky with an intensity he’d never felt before.

“But when she went after you, it was like the entire reality of the situation came crashing down. Ladybug was not going to come, and people were going to be in serious danger. You were going to be in danger. And suddenly it felt like I had so much more left to lose.” He looked up at her from behind his bangs, stilling his hands on hers. “Something I couldn’t afford to lose.”

Marinette’s hand froze in his, and her shoulders lurched up as she inhaled a sharp breath. Her entire face suddenly seemed a lot more red than it was a moment ago, and Chat could tell that he had completely thrown her off guard. When she closed her eyes, Chat could visibly see her forcing herself to breathe in, breathe out, and breathe in again. He gauged her reaction with curiosity, cat ears twitching in anticipation.

“Marinette,” he tested, forcing her to look back at him. When she did, she was biting her lower lip, and her hands were still frozen in place while the rest of her body shifted uncomfortably in place. He continued carefully, not sure yet if her reaction was exactly what he wanted. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“K-knew what?”

“Back on the roof, when you told me to go fetch the webbing and free everyone. You knew that Arachnid was going to corner you, and you knew you weren’t going to get out of there unscathed.” Chat hitched his breath, the question he was afraid to ask on the tip of his tongue, threatening to swallow itself. “Why did you do it?”

Marinette went silent again, but her body finally relaxed and her hand eased back into Chat’s. She sat still for a moment, thoughts battling in her head as she tried to find the right string of words that would effectively express what she had felt at that moment. Finally, she looked into Chat’s eyes and whispered something faintly to him. Something that would ring between Chat’s ears for the rest of his life. 

“You aren’t the only person with something to lose.”

The words nearly knocked Chat’s soul right out of his body, and for a moment he felt as if his heart had completely stopped. Any thoughts he might have had had dissipated like mist, and his head felt so horribly empty that all he wanted to do was fill it with more of Marinette.

When she spoke again, she deflected the conversation off of herself, looking away from Chat and at the lamp on her desk, using anything as an excuse to not look at him. “Chat, are you…” She tried to ask, eyebrows furrowing. “Are you mad at Ladybug?”

Chat really was not prepared for that question, and all the thoughts that had been lost a moment before came rushing back. He had to think about it for a moment - was he mad at Ladybug? She had let him down, after all - she’s never missed an akuma fight before, always showing up to the scene either moments before or moments after Chat had. And because she didn’t show up, she couldn’t use her Lucky Charm to fix everything - leaving people like Marinette to suffer the damage. If Ladybug had been there, maybe Chat would have been less afraid, and more willing to throw himself in front of the danger like he always did, and maybe things wouldn’t have turned out like this.

But he couldn’t blame Ladybug for his own cowardice. He had no doubt in his mind that if the tables had turned and it was Ladybug there and not him, she would have found a way to deal with the issue without any casualties. She would be just fine on her own, if not better - no, it was Chat’s fault that Marinette got hurt, and he couldn’t be mad at Ladybug for his constant dependence on her.

“No,” he said carefully. “I’m not mad. Not at her, at least.”

Understanding swept over Marinette like a wave, and the hurt that shimmered in her eyes made Chat regret saying anything. “Oh, Chat,” Marinette whispered, her shoulders sagging in a crestfallen gesture. The hand that Chat had been lightly holding lifted up to caress his cheek, and for a moment Chat’s chest panged as he remembered himself doing that same gesture to her that very morning. Marinette continued, tracing her fingers across his skin. “Chat, no one expects you to be perfect.”

Chat couldn’t help but snort at that. _‘Yeah, no one but my dad,’_ he thought bitterly.

For a moment, Chat couldn’t understand why Marinette was looking at him like he was a drowning kitten. It wasn’t until he realized he had just projected his thoughts out loud for her to hear that he decided he would much rather be drowning than having this conversation.

Chat clamped his mouth shut, eyes widening with dread as he flinched away from Marinette’s touch, not daring to look at her but finding himself unable to shut his eyes. There was a sickening silence in the room, and suddenly Chat felt like instead of air he was breathing soup, and the uncomfortableness of it sat in his lungs like a big bag of bricks. He had to get out of here, or else he felt he might suffocate.

Marinette might have whispered his name, but Chat was already standing, pulling himself away from Marinette and toward the door, desperate to escape her presence as fast as possible - the bitter autumn storm outside couldn’t possibly be any colder than the chill that had just settled into his bones, and at the moment Chat felt that the frozen air would taste sweeter than the pity Marinette would try to serve him.

He wasn’t about to have this conversation with Marinette - not right now. Maybe not ever. She didn’t deserve to bear the weight of all his issues, and he didn’t mean to open up another entirely different can of worms when they had just finished dealing with the first one. It wasn’t fair to her. And even if he did share about his hollow home life, what could Marinette possibly say that wouldn’t sound cheesy or shallow? He didn’t want Marinette apologizing for something she couldn’t control.

He needed to leave before he got the chance to say anything else he might regret later.

Chat had covered half the ground towards the exit when Marinette finally said something. “Wait, Chat!” He could hear shuffling behind him as Marinette struggled to stand, but if he stopped to look at her right now he knew he would never be able to make it out that door.

He had almost made it. He was so close - Chat had just grabbed the handle of the balcony door, but a firm hand seized his arm, halting him in his place. With gentle strength, Marinette spun him around, her eyes trying to read Chat as best as she could in the dim light of the dusk. Marinette’s breath was husky with emotion as she contemplated her next words, and Chat halted himself in her grip as he awaited her tender scoldings.

And then the next thing he knew, her body was pressed tightly against his, an arm wrapped around his waist and her head pressing against his chest, her hand clutching the back of his suit as if she was afraid he’d still try to run.

“I’m sorry,” she hummed, melting away all the ice Chat had built up around his heart. She was pushing into him, holding him as tight as she could with her one good arm - as if Chat was breaking apart, and Marinette was trying to hold all his little pieces together. “I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through,” she continued, voice low. “But I’m here for you, if you ever need it.”

Chat thawed in her arms, dissolving into her warmth and encompassing all of his senses with her. His throat felt like wax, as if he had just swallowed a spoonful of cough syrup, so he didn’t try to speak. The hurt was still there, and nothing could change that - but it was as if Marinette had thrown a heated blanket over the top of it, causing it all to seep out of him, bit by bit. 

Slowly, he wrapped his arms around Marinette in return, but it wasn’t perfect; her bad arm was still swaddled close to her stomach, caught in between the two of them at an awkward angle as Chat tried to envelope her without causing her any pain.

They stood there together in the dim light of the room for a long time, finally finding a comfortable medium between the two of them as Marinette silently counted Chat’s heartbeats. Chat almost felt as if he should be nervous about being so close to her, but the moment was so sincere, so heartwarming, that he couldn’t feel anything except for Marinette’s silent comfort.

A high-pitched beep echoed out in the room, and Chat’s heart sank. He knew Marinette could feel it too - her body stiffened in his arms, and she tightened her grip around Chat. It was almost time to go.

Chat rested his chin on the top of Marinette’s head, closing his eyes. “... Does your arm hurt at all?” he whispered into her damp hair, trying to make the passing minutes last longer.

A sigh rippled through her body, and Chat could feel her breath hot against his neck. “It’ll hurt worse once you leave,” she replied quietly.

Another soft beep.

Chat allowed himself a small hint of a smile. “Guess I won’t be able to leave then,” he chuckled, hyper aware of the seconds ticking by.

He could feel a giggle vibrate through Marinette’s body. “I know how you alley cats are. If I don’t kick you out now, you’ll never leave.”

Another laugh, followed by another beep.

“Just say the word and I’ll leave you alone, princess,” he managed to whisper. He was surprised by how much he had meant that, even though nothing seemed more impossible than jumping out that window and leaving Marinette.

His ring beeped once more. Marinette didn’t say anything.

“That’s what I thought,” he teased. But something about Marinette wanting him to stay just as much as he did made Chat’s heart flutter in a way he couldn’t understand.

One last beep resonated throughout the room. “Chat,” Marinette warned, her heart getting caught up in her throat. Their time was up, and they both knew it; but Chat’s feet refused to move, and he was so content to hold Marinette in his arms that the fact that his identity might be revealed seemed little more than a passing consequence to him.

“I know,” he replied softly, pulling Marinette even closer. “Just… A few more minutes. Please.”

“Chat, you can’t, you’re going to change back any second now and-”

“Close your eyes,” he whispered, his voice barely audible. He could hear Marinette swallow hard, but he knew she would listen to his plea - she would never risk discovering his identity, not on purpose. 

Moments later, a bright green flash illuminated the room like lightning, and Chat’s mask had disappeared. His heart started to beat erratically, and the courage he had previously felt moments ago completely vanished. It dawned on him that he was no longer Chat Noir, but Adrien - and he suddenly felt like he was betraying Marinette. If she knew it was him holding her in his arms, would she be okay with it? 

Marinette locked herself up in his arms, as if she was afraid of her own eyes betraying her against her will, and she felt as rigid as a rock. They stood tense for a little bit, unsure of what to expect next, both of them suddenly feeling extremely vulnerable.

The whole absurdity of the situation got to Adrien before it hit Marinette, and Adrien started to laugh. It came deep and hearty, right from his chest, and he could feel Marinette squirm against him in confusion. 

“Chat, what the hell,” she croaked, a certain panicked edginess in the tone of her voice.

He loosened his muscles, draping himself around Marinette the same as he had before he had transformed back into Adrien. “Sorry,” he snickered. “It’s just... that was really stupid.”

He could feel Marinette breathe against him, and then a moment later she was cackling along with him. “Yeah,” she agreed, a smile traced across his chest. Their laughter echoed within the room, mixing together until it was indecipherable whose voice was who’s. “You’re the biggest idiot I know, Chat,” she giggled.

“You adore me,” he taunted.

Marinette snorted. “Unfortunately.”

Time passed slowly around them as they settled back into each other's arms, and Adrien decided that if he died right in that moment, it wouldn’t even be a shame - nothing could surpass the feeling of Marinette against him, the smell of fresh shampoo drafting into his nose as he breathed into her hair, the warmth of her fingers brushing the edges of his shoulder blades as she traced circles absentmindedly into his back. 

It was so surreal, like something straight out of a dream - but he couldn’t help but wonder. Would she still be holding him this way, would she still speak to him with such sincere words, if she knew it was Adrien behind that mask? What would she say if she realized that the easy quips that she throws against him completely dissipate in normal life, when it’s Adrien and not Chat in front of her every day at school?

He tried not to think about it, because the more he thought about it the more he was tempted to ask Marinette to open her eyes - even if that meant no more sweet hugs in the middle of a starless night from an even sweeter girl.

They lost track of the minutes. Adrien didn’t know how long he had stood there with Marinette, and he wanted nothing more than to stay there with her... But it was getting late, and he knew that Marinette’s arm wouldn’t get better if she didn’t get any rest. 

Begrudgingly, he let his hands wander up to her cheeks (being weary of the cut just below her eye), cupping her face in his hands gently. Her eyes still closed, he leaned in to her forehead, planting a kiss there for good luck. “Thank you,” he breathed, mouthing the words against her skin. He let his fingers linger there, curling against the tangles of her still-wet hair - no gloves in the way to numb the feeling of skin on skin. Marinette’s eyes fluttered, still blinked shut, and her breath wavered slightly in response.

Then he pulled away, facing the door once again, and headed out into the shadow of the night without a sound.

Marinette didn’t open her eyes until ten minutes later, when the door of the balcony creaked between open and closed, and the chilling wind took away any lasting trace of the boy without the mask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY BELATED VALENTINES DAY.... here, have some emotional teenagers who Definitely Do Not Have Crushes On Each Other
> 
> OKAY LIKE... this chapter was done like a week and a half ago but i kept putting off posting it because everything just sounded..................... off
> 
> i wrote and rewrote it like seven times and im still not happy with it but WHAT ARE U GONNA DO.... (the answer is cry about it. im going to cry about it)
> 
> anyways i hope u guys liked it anyways orz;;; these things just get longer and longer and im suffering. i'll try to get the next chapter up faster but... honestly i forgot where i was going with the next chapter,,, Oh God Its A Trainwreck And Im Driving It


	4. Trainwreck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the title is both figurative and literal. do trains work this way? probably not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for mentions of bruises and also for incorrect ways to describe and use trains in fics

When Marinette woke up the next morning, she had to remind herself that last night had actually happened, and she wasn't in some sort of self-induced fever dream.

She went through her day just like any other (minus the school, which would still be out for a few more days), running errands for the bakery and giving a helping hand in the kitchen, calling Ayla and asking about her last few days off school, and even scrolling quickly through the Ladyblog just for the sake of checking on her friend’s latest theory. Marinette tried her hardest to focus on whatever task was on hand, being sure to always keep herself busy just so her thoughts wouldn’t dare linger.

But no matter how many dishes she washed, how many deliveries she dropped off, or how many times she checked the Ladyblog (the fourth time and counting), there was always the gentle warmth of chapped lips on her forehead, the tickling sensation of fingers ghosting across the nape of her neck, and the loud beat of Chat’s heart thumping in her ears. It was almost surreal - and if Chat hadn’t left traces of evidence that flushed against her skin and demanded constant attention, she wouldn’t have even believed that it had actually happened.

As frustrating as it was to have Chat, of all people, stuck on her mind like a broken record, Marinette was glad that he decided to drop by last night. It had given her a lot of clarity about where their relationship stood; except for the whole hugging thing, which had left her feeling completely lost in almost every conceivable way. What mattered most was that Chat wasn’t angry at Ladybug for not showing up for the akuma fight, which made it a little bit easier for Marinette to forgive herself for her shortcomings. She still had a long way to go - just thinking about Chat’s face twisting up when Ladybug was mentioned made a knife twist up in Marinette’s gut - but the two of them would be okay.

They were always okay.

So despite the consistent twinge of pain that flared in her bad arm whenever she moved, Marinette was more than itching to get back into the suit. The night couldn’t envelope the city fast enough, and she couldn’t wait to patrol the city streets with Chat, under the protection of her mask. At least then she would be able formally apologize to him, and work on fixing the mess that this whole situation had created.

“Marinette!” a familiar voice called from below Marinette’s room.

“Coming, Papa!” Hurling herself off her chair, Marinette ran down the stairs, eager to do anything that didn’t include thumbing through the same old posts on Ayla’s blog. Upon reaching the bottom floor, the man twirled around, revealing three pink boxes full of cupcakes stacked in his arms. 

“We’ve got a package that needs to be delivered within the next hour, but the bakery is practically swamped with people, and I can’t leave your mother to do all the work - would you mind…” Tom’s eyes glided down to Marinette’s arm, still wrapped tightly in it’s sling. “Ah. You know what, never mind, I’ll find the time to get it to where it needs to go.”

Marinette really was lucky to have such loving parents. While they weren’t exactly happy with the injuries that she had sustained, they were completely supportive of how she handled the situation at the school, and her dad even made sure to call her his ‘little hero’ every time they walked by each other that day. (Her mother was less enthusiastic than him, chiding her for not being careful enough, but Marinette knew it came from worry rather than anger. Her mother was always the more headstrong parent when it came to this kind of thing.) 

Of course, no one knew what actually happened on that roof, save for Chat and herself, and perhaps Juleka, and Marinette was sure to not stress the details to her parents that much. They didn’t need to know that she had almost gotten wrapped alive like a dead fly.

Marinette smiled, standing on her tiptoes to reach her father’s cheek with a loving kiss. “It’s alright, Papa, I can take them. I’ve already taken a few deliveries today, anyways.” She lifted the boxes from his hands, adjusting her sling slightly to get a better grip.

Tom frowned, mustache hanging low in a way that exaggerated his expression. “Sure, but those weren’t nearly as big as this one. Are you sure your arm is fine?”

Her arm wasn’t fine, but Marinette was getting sick of wasting the day away. “I’m a big girl, I think I can handle walking a few boxes of cupcakes across the street.”

A sigh welled up from his chest, sounding defeated. “You remind me too much of your mother, sometimes, mon fille,” he chuckled, wiping a large thumb across the cut on her cheek. “So stubborn. Stay safe, okay? You know how to reach me if you get into trouble.”

Marinette leaned into his hand, dimples etched into her cheeks. “Me? Getting into trouble? You must be joking, Papa.” Her laughter was full of sarcastic teasing, and the laugh she got in return was just as genuine. Turning away from her father, Marinette turned her head to get a glance at her mother, who was running the register at the front of the store. “Mom, I’ll be back in a little bit, love you!”

Her mother smiled in response, giving a slight wave before focusing her attention back to her customers. With that, Marinette headed for the door, weaving herself and the boxes around the line of people waiting to buy their own cupcakes. The door swung closed behind her with a ring of a bell, and she made her way to the customers house, boxes in arms.

By the time she reached the park, Marinette decided she had made an awful mistake when she took the boxes from her dad’s hands. They were stacked on top of each other, and Marinette had to lean back as she walked to ensure that they didn’t fly forward or become unbalanced. The top of the boxes reached just beneath her chin, causing her to not be able to see either her feet or the ground. On top of that, her bad arm was starting to ache worse than it had that morning, and Marinette could feel her pulse pumping low and hard from her fingers to the top of her shoulder. And she wasn’t even halfway to her destination yet.

She was about to give in and take a break on a nearby bench when a familiar voice caught her attention. “Marinette?” Startled, she tried to spin her head around to see who was speaking, but the movement caused her feet to shuffle in strange directions, causing her to lose her balance.

Luckily, a strong hand held her in place from her back before she had the chance to fall, probably saving all the cupcakes and Marinette’s shoulder in the process. Adrien stepped to the side of her, not moving his hand away but making himself known to her. “Woah, that was close. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Adrien!” Marinette fumbled, biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from saying anything stupid. “Ah, it’s alright, really,” she swallowed, trying to remember how words worked. “You didn’t scare me, it’s just…” She lifted the boxes in her hands slightly, as if to make a point about them. “It’s kinda hard to see while I’m holding these.”

Adrien looked down at the boxes in her hands, as if noticing for them for the first time. “Oh!” He slid his arm off of her back--causing little lightning bolts of shivers to tingle up her spine--moving himself to the front of her for a moment. “Here, I can carry some for you, if you’d like.”

“No, it’s fine really, I have them! I couldn’t... I couldn’t ask you to help with deliveries, I still have a long way to go, and they…” Marinette wracked her brain for another reason - in truth, she wouldn’t mind Adrien walking with her (wouldn’t mind in the _slightest_ ), but she didn’t want to seem weak or unable to work in front of him, and honestly she didn’t want to force him to help out of pity. “They aren’t that heavy,” she lied.

She couldn’t explain the expression on Adrien’s face - his mouth tightened as he swallowed hard, his forehead revealing almost invisible lines as he moved his eyebrows together with worry. His eyes flicked down to her swollen arm for half a second, but Marinette caught the movement. “Maybe they aren’t, but… You really shouldn’t be stressing yourself like this, Marinette.” He placed his hands over hers in an attempt to lift the boxes from her, eyes drifting to meet her own. “Please,” he tried, “I want to help.”

The way he said her name made Marinette’s heart leap into her throat, and she found herself unable to say no to him when he was like this. “Fine,” she agreed, and Adrien let a smile loose on his face. He was about to lift the burden off of her when she stepped back, a smile tugging at her lips. “You can take two. If you fall backwards because you can’t see where you are going, I won’t be able to catch you as gracefully as you caught me.”

Adrien’s eyes crinkled in that way that Marinette loved when he laughed. He didn’t do it often enough, in her opinion. “Alright, I guess that’s fair.” Taking two of the pink boxes from her arms, fingers grazing the top of her own, he fell into step besides Marinette as they walked together across the park. While her arm still throbbed, some of the more obnoxious pain was eased when the weight was pulled off her shoulder, and suddenly Marinette realized that she could breath normally again. 

They walked in awkward silence for a few moments, Marinette wordlessly leading Adrien to where they needed to go as she tried to think of a typical conversation topic that wouldn’t reveal her jumping nerves. The last thing she wanted to do was cough out something about the weather. Adrien saved her the trouble by talking for her, words coming out strong and steady. 

“So, I heard about you saving everyone at the school the other day. I bet that would have been kinda cool to see.”

Adrien thought she was cool? Oh, god. “Oh, sure, I guess,” Marinette choked, trying to veer the attention off of her a little. “It wasn’t a big deal, I-I mean, Chat Noir ended up doing more than I could have anyways. I was just trying to get people away from Arachnid, for the most part.”

“Still, that’s more than what anyone else tried to do,” Adrien reasoned, shifting the boxes in his hands absentmindedly. “Wish I could have been around to see you save the day.”

“Pfft,” Marinette snorted, cheeks feeling flush with all the compliments. “Hardly. I was so scared I could have sworn my spine was going to fall out of my back.”

That seemed to surprise Adrien. “Really? You could have fooled me. And most of our fellow classmates.” He seemed bothered by that, and he shuffled his feet awkwardly, as if he was so focused on his thoughts that he forgot about his feet.

“What do you know?” Marinette teased, not wanting Adrien to dwell on whatever it is he was thinking about for too long. She decided that she didn’t like it when he frowned like that, and she wouldn’t let him worry over someone like herself. “You weren’t even there, you’d already gotten all webbed up or something. Or you just up and left at the first sign of trouble, like a reasonable person.”

“Hah,” Adrien laughed, looking back to her. “I wish. I could probably solve a lot of my problems by just walking away like a reasonable person.”

That confirmed some of Marinette’s suspicions, and her heart sunk a little bit. They walked silently for a few more moments, feet matching pace with each other as Marinette became lost in thought. She finally broke the quiet, voice low and ashamed. “I’m sorry that we… That I couldn’t find you. At the school, I mean, when Arachnid was taking people captive.” Marinette looked at Adrien between his eyes, locking hers with the bridge of his nose so that she didn’t lose her nerve and look away. “I know you aren’t the fondest of spiders.”

Marinette could hear Adrien’s voice catch, and for a moment she thought that maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. The last thing she wanted to do was have Adrien relive traumatizing memories because of her, and her heart started to race as she considered all the horrible endings this conversation could potentially have. She was just getting around to possibility number seven, which ended with cupcakes on the ground and an unfortunate pigeon attack, when Adrien finally spoke up.

“Hey,” he said, expression frustratingly unreadable. “Don’t talk like that. You did your best. That’s all anyone could have asked for, especially in those situations.” He balanced the two boxes on one arm, freeing the other to hold Marinette by the shoulder as they walked. “Look, while I was on the roo-… Uh. In that webbing. I couldn’t have been half as scared as you were, and to be honest I was probably even safer than you might have been. Facing down a giant lady spider akuma with a whole bunch of creepy eyes and too many legs just seems a whole lot more dangerous than… What, sitting comfortably in a padded ball of web?” Adrien laughed, but Marinette could feel the shudder go through his spine because of the hand resting on her shoulder.

Something was troubling him, eating at his muscles and causing a bead of sweat to drip from his brow. Marinette bit the inside of her lip, curious as to what could possibly be agitating him, but finding herself unable to ask.

“Anyways,” Adrien continued, retrieving his hand from her shoulder and rebalancing it under the boxes in his arms. “What I’m getting at is that it’s okay to be scared. No one expects you to be perfect, Marinette.”

He said the words so nonchalantly, but they struck against a certain memory of Marinette’s like a gunshot, and the force of the implications behind it caused her to stop dead on her feet.

Adrien stopped just one step ahead of her, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “... Marinette?”

Marinette stopped her train of thought before it had any chance to derail the tracks. “Nothing,” she murmured, shaking her head. “It’s just that I said those exact same words to a friend of mine last night.” She fell right back into step with Adrien, urging him to continue along with her. “It’s funny how easy it is to give advice, and how hard it is to follow it,” she mused, mostly talking to herself.

She could hear Adrien swallow hard. “Oh, er. Yeah,” he agreed, seeming sidetracked.

Horrible ending possibility number eight flew through Marinette’s eyes as she imagined Adrien getting bored with the conversation and leaving, taking all the baked goods with him. She quickly thought of another topic to jump on before horrible ending possibility number nine could start to formulate in it’s place. “So!” she exclaimed, a little bit more enthusiastically than she had planned. “I forgot to ask. What made you come to the park today, anyways?”

“What, am I not allowed to just go out and enjoy the day?” Adrien teased, a smirk stapled to his cheeks.

“Well, no, but it is a little strange to see you out in public without an entourage of cameramen following you. I would have figured you’d be too busy modeling to help some poor, defenseless teenage girl with a couple of hostile boxes.”

Adrien shrugged in response. “I’ve been benched from the modeling gig for the next couple of days. Apparently Father didn’t like the idea of traumatizing events giving me grey hairs, so I’ve been put on lockdown until further notice,” he explained, expression seeming reserved. 

After a slow second, he turned to Marinette, a playful look in his eyes that quickly took over whatever emotions he was currently having towards his father. “But do you wanna know a secret?”

She did, but she also didn’t want to seem too eager. “I have a feeling you’re going to tell me either way,” Marinette giggled.

“I escaped,” he winked, and Marinette’s heart melted, trickling down her ribcage. “I’m a free bird now, Marinette. No fancy high-tech security measures are going to stop me from enjoying the fresh air. Especially when I’ve got a huge unlocked window in my room just begging to be climbed through,” he laughed, obviously pleased with himself.

“Uh oh,” Marinette snickered. “Hope that doesn’t make me your accomplice in crime. I’m too young to get a felon for helping a wanted prisoner,” she laughed, prodding Adrien in the arm with her elbow.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. If you get arrested, I’ll pay your bail. Unless you want to go the old fashion way, spoons and all.” His teeth glistened against his lips. “Good luck with that, though.”

“Spoons are a lot more useful than you’re giving them credit for,” Marinette pointed out. “You can use them for more than just digging your way out of prison.”

Adrien chuckled, shaking his head. “You’re a baker, of course you would know all the different uses for spoons. The only thing I’ve used spoons for is for eating and for doing that…” He paused, words suddenly falling short. “You know when you breathe on a spoon and then stick it on your nose?” He tried to point at his face, but the boxes got in his way. Instead, Adrien went cross eyed, looking directly at his nose, cheeks puffing out with a fake concentration, trying to express his idea despite the loss of his hands. “It’s that,” he finished. “I use spoons for that.”

The thought of Adrien balancing spoons on his face with nothing but the friction of the condensation from a warm breath almost made Marinette snort, and she doubled over in an attempt to hold it in, nearly dropping the cupcakes in the process. Adrien joined her, and the two of them had to stop a moment to catch their breath before they could continue walking.

“Oh my god,” Marinette wheezed, tears in her eyes. “Your face, it just…” She puffed out her cheeks and went crosseyed, mimicking Adrien’s from just moments before, before the ridiculousness of the situation caused her to start laughing again. She looked over to him, and was happy to see him beaming at her with a warmth that she decided she could get used to. “Someone as attractive as you shouldn’t be making faces like that,” she smiled, trying to stifle the onslaught of giggles that bubbled in her throat.

Smile lines creased the skin at the edge of Adrien’s eyes, and he wiggled his eyebrows flirtatiously. “Oh, so you think I’m attractive?” he mocked, lowering his voice to match the scene.

Marinette physically backpedaled, choking for a moment on her own spit. _God, he’s worse than Chat,_ Marinette managed to think before her brain went all fuzzy. “Er, well-I mean, it’s just..” she croaked, her eyes darting all over his face, unable to decide where to look. “To be fair, e-everyone finds you attractive,” she managed, giving him a weak smile to compensate.

She wasn’t used to Adrien acting like this - and while she was glad that he had finally shed his reserved persona, she wasn’t sure how to act around an Adrien who was willing to kid around like they were best of friends. It wasn’t fair, how come her knees went weak whenever she managed to pull a smile out of him? Marinette was even starting to feel a little more composed than usual around him, and the conversation had been going so well - why did he have to ruin it by being so darn _charming_? It was like butterflies had not only taken refuge in her stomach, but every other major organ in her body as well.

It seemed as though Marinette’s reaction was good enough for Adrien, who just continued on with his goofy laugh. “I guess,” he agreed, blowing his bangs out of his face. “If I didn’t look at least somewhat attractive then I would be out of a job. But you know,” he continued, stepping just a little bit closer to Marinette’s side as they walked, “the same could be said about you, Marinette. Er… The attractive thing, not the job thing, I mean.”

“Bw-what?” she managed to sputter. What did he just say?

Apparently Adrien didn’t feel the need to clarify, because a moment later he stopped leaning in her direction and continued walking with a normal space between the two of them. Marinette felt as if her brain was suspended in jelly, and the gears in her head seemed to be running in reverse - but if she had heard that correctly, Adrien had just called her _attractive_.

If it was possible for her cheeks to turn any more red, the blood vessels in her face would probably burst.

Marinette was in the middle of praying to whatever god was out there to just let the earth swallow her whole when a soft-spoken voice whispered her name, and a painted fingernail tapped her right shoulder.

“Juleka!” Marinette gasped, turning to meet her face to face, only to be surprised by another body accompanying her side as well. “Rose!”

“Hey, Marinette!” Rose exclaimed, her bright pink lipstick smiling wide as she leaned forward to greet her. She looked past Marinette’s shoulder for a moment to catch Adrien’s eye as he turned around to see the commotion. “Adrien,” she nodded in acknowledgement. 

Adrien smiled politely, walking up to the group to join the conversation. “Oh, hey! What are you two up to today?”

Rose looked over her shoulder to Juleka, who was obviously trying to hide behind her tiny friend and not being incredibly successful at it. Her eyes seemed wild, darting all over the scenery and bouncing between Rose and Marinette, and as she self-consciously ducked her head her purple bangs fell to cover most of her face. In her hands, Marinette noticed a stack of flyers, the edges nervously crinkled and creased as Juleka fiddled with them in her arms. Rose gave a polite cough, prodding her elbow gently into Juleka’s side, only to be rewarded with an anxious glance from behind Juleka’s bangs.

“I…” Juleka started, clenching and unclenching her fingers, causing the papers to wrinkle even more. She took a deep breath and started again, voice practically microscopic. “We thought it might be a good idea if we had a competition for the school. To, uh, bring everyone’s spirits up, after… After the incident.” Her jaw was clenched tight, and her back as straight as a rod, and if Marinette could see her eyes she might have thought Juleka was about to cry.

“Yeah!” Rose cut in, hands clutched to her chest as she looked to Juleka endearingly. “It was all Juleka’s idea, isn’t it marvelous? What better way to get into the school spirit than a friendly little baking competition!” Her body practically vibrated, as if her entire being was too small to contain that much excitement. She almost reminded Marinette of a little chihuahua puppy, eyes bulging out of her head and all.

Adrien seemed to perk right up the second the word ‘baking’ was uttered, and suddenly seemed more invested in the conversation. “Oh man, that sounds great. I’m all for it,” he grinned, eyeing Marinette.

“Sure,” Marinette agreed, glancing at Juleka with worry. She seemed absolutely distressed, shifting the weight of her body from one leg to the other repeatedly and biting the lipstick off of her bottom lip. Marinette tried to offer her a comforting smile, but that only seemed to make things worse.

“H-here,” Juleka mumbled, holding out a piece of paper for Marinette to grab. When she found herself unable, Juleka placed it on the top of the box Marinette was holding, immediately retrieving her arm away from Marinette after the paper was secured.

“Thanks!” Marinette chirped, making a mental note to be sure that she didn’t accidently give the flyer away when she handed off the box of cupcakes to the customer. Juleka said nothing in return, but managed a worried smile, her body relaxing just a smidge.

Rose looked between Marinette and Juleka repeatedly, still shivering with anticipation, waiting for… Well, Marinette didn’t know what exactly, but she was waiting for something. When neither of the girls attempted to start up another conversation, Rose looked crestfallen, giving into the reality of things with a deep sigh that seemed more mature than she looked. Tugging at the end of Juleka’s shirt sleeve, she gave a despondent smile to Marinette. “Well, we can’t wait to see your entry. I know you’re going to blast the competition away, Marinette!”

Marinette returned her compliment with a sheepish smile, an itch in the back of her brain wondering what exactly was going on between those two - something more than a baking competition, surely - but decided it wasn’t her place to mettle. “Thanks, Rose. I’ll see you two when school starts back up, alright?” She nodded to Juleka, who peeped out a small goodbye to both Marinette and Adrien. 

The two of them had just turned around after saying their goodbyes, boxes in hand, when a shaking hand tugged at the back of Marinette’s shirt. “W-wait, Marinette…”

Marinette swiveled back around on her toes to meet eye-to-eye with Juleka once more. Her lower lip trembled, and suddenly Marinette noticed the puffiness of her eyes, red with irritation and salt. 

“I’m… I’m so sorry,” she started, voice cracking like ice. “It’s all so foggy, I don’t--I didn’t mean to--Rose told me what she saw at the s-school, and I never meant…” Her eyes glossed over with tears, violet shimmering against violet, fingers twitching with a panicked energy. A veil of shame draped over her, and Juleka dropped her head to stare at the cold cement beneath them.

A tugging motion from behind Marinette caught her attention, and to her surprise it was Adrien - and before Marinette could protest, he hunched down and swooped the third box out of Marinette’s hands, stacking it on top of his own. ‘I got it,’ he mouthed to her silently, shifting his weight to lean back to compensate for the new weight. He nodded his head towards Juleka, and Marinette got the impression that he was just trying to help Marinette so that she could comfort Juleka without any obstacles getting in her way. 

Marinette appreciated it, because Juleka seemed absolutely wracked with terror and guilt, her body tremoring as she tried to swallow down wild hiccups. 

“I was just… So angry,” she finally whispered, voice tight with fear. “I remember…. I remember everything seeming so incredibly purple, and suddenly, my back, i-it felt like someone coated my spine with lead. Everything kind of just ached, and there was a pressure behind my eyes, and I could see… I could see the world just thumping. Like... like a pulse. Like it was wounded.” Juleka raised her hands to her head, covering her eyes with painted nails. “God, that doesn’t even make any sense,” she croaked.

“Juleka…” Marinette’s heart nearly collapsed at herself, and guilt was nipping at her eyes. Of all the people who had been hurt from that situation, she never even considered Juleka being one of them. Victims of akumas never really remembered anything, and it was strange that Juleka was having such vivid recollections of the event… Except for the fact that the akuma wasn’t exactly purified - at least, not yet. It was the only reason Marinette could think of that Juleka would even have these memories, and the thought made knives slice down Marinette’s throat.

Juleka sniffed, wiping away her tears with her sleeve. “I don’t remember much after that, but I do remember a, uh... a feeling that I had to cover everything with webs. The thumping hurt my ears, and the more I covered everything, the more distant it sounded, so I just… I couldn’t...” Her breath quickened, and her fingers dropped from her face to wrap themselves in the fabric of her shirt. “I’m so sorry, Marinette. I saw you with Rose and I couldn’t stop myself, and the next thing I knew you were on the roof and I was on top of you and you were bleeding and-” 

Marinette closed the gap between them, wrapping her good hand loosely around Juleka’s wrist. “That wasn’t you, Juleka,” she whispered, her gut finally unfolding itself. “You don’t need to apologize. I don’t want you to apologize.” Juleka met her eyes, and Marinette hoped some comfort was reaching into her, filling up those places that had been taken when the akuma attacked. “No one blames you for what happened, Juleka. You aren’t the first one this has happened with, and you certainly won’t be the last.” 

Marinette tightened her grip on Juleka’s wrist, relief flooding into her cheeks with a reassuring smile. “I’m just glad you and Rose made it out safe.”

Juleka’s throat made an indiscernible noise, and the next thing Marinette knew, Juleka was clinging to her, arms wrapped tightly around her neck. 

“Thank you,” she half-sobbed, untempered emotions rolling through her voice. “Thank you so much, Marinette.”

Marinette said nothing, but wrapped her good arm as best as she could around her friend in return, patting her hair lightly.

\----------------

The group split after that, both Juleka and Rose waving goodbye - Juleka with a particularly big smile spread across her face. Marinette fell back into step with Adrien, who refused to give her back her box as they continued their walk. 

“It’s fine, I got it,” he insisted, turning away from Marinette when she reached to take it from his arms. “We’re almost there, anyways, right?”

“I mean, yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to hassle with all the boxes,” Marinette argued, blowing her bangs out of her face with slight contempt.

“Marinette, I can see how much your arm is hurting,” he retorted, surprising Marinette with how observant he was. “You were lowering your grip on the box the entire time we were walking, and when you hugged Juleka, you flinched when she pressed against your shoulder.”

He wasn’t wrong - her arm was steadily throbbing more and more the farther they walked, and the sudden hug attack from Juleka certainly didn’t help - but she knew how awkward it was to walk with all three boxes in her arms, and she wasn’t going to let Adrien take that upon himself without a little heckling on her part.

Adrien shook his head, chuckling to himself. “Unbelievable. Has anyone ever told you before that you’re incredibly stubborn?”

Marinette snickered a little bit at that. “Only my Dad, about every other day.” She poked a finger into Adrien’s shoulder, pushing him to the side slightly. “But if I wasn’t stubborn, I’d have all sorts of gentlemen trying to do my jobs for me, and I can’t have that. Nothing would get done.”

“Ouch,” Adrien mused, faking a hurt expression by pouting his lips. “That’s harsh, Marinette. I’m wounded.”

“Does that mean I can have my box back?”

“Absolutely not.”

\----------------

The two of them finished their delivery before the hour was up (Marinette being sure to grab the flier from Juleka off the top of the box before they handed it over), just in time for the sun to start setting below the skyline of Paris. The warm autumn day was quickly being overturned with a cool breeze, and with the perishing light Marinette was beginning to be increasingly aware that it was almost time to meet Chat for patrol. 

Luckily, Adrien seemed just as anxious to get home (“Er… My father might notice that I’m gone if I don’t hurry,” he had said with a twinge of anxiety), and the two of them parted ways with a wave, heading in opposite directions on their way home.

Marinette debated on whether she should just hide around an alleyway to transform and meet Chat right away, but she also knew that if she didn’t stop by her house before the night fully settled in to check in with her parents, they would worry. She hated to leave Chat waiting like that, but her parents came first.

She practically ran all the way home, eager to make it to the top of the eiffel tower as soon as possible. When she finally made it to her front door, her father was waiting for her, and after a quick “I’m fine, Dad, the delivery went perfect, but I’m really tired so I’m going to head to bed,” Marinette managed to escape to her room. 

Before Marinette did anything, she slid the sling off of her arm, cautiously rolling her shoulder to assess how much pain she was still in. Her left arm wasn’t swollen anymore, but if she stressed the joints in her shoulder too much she could still feel the ache reach deep into her bones. Luckily, she was dominantly right-handed, and Marinette figured she’d be able to handle a few well-placed yo-yo swings.

Finally, a transformation took place, and instead of Marinette standing at the foot of her mirror, it was Ladybug. The mask took form around her eyes, and Ladybug took a finger and lined the outside rim of it, a little relieved to find that the mask covered the worst of the cut just below her left eye. 

Ladybug let a sigh inflate her lungs, feeling secure with her yo-yo on her hip. It had felt like centuries since she could last transform, and for the first time that day she felt truly comfortable as herself. She reminisced about a time when she dreaded the spots, and hated the feeling of responsibility like a ball and chain around her ankles - but things were so different now, and with a happy hum Ladybug set out on the balcony to prepare for a much awaited patrol across Paris.

Night had finally fully cloaked around the city as Ladybug sent out, and the cool fog that settled below her as she swung across the rooftops felt refreshing as she would occasionally dip above and below its reach.

It wasn’t long until she had reached her destination, aiming her yo-yo high to climb the scaffolding of the tower before her. A pair of radioactive eyes met hers, and a warm shadow made it’s way towards her as she landed.

“Ladybug!” Chat nearly flung himself at her, wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace. Ladybug had to stop herself from physically grimacing as he put pressure on her bad shoulder, and she clenched her teeth tight to stop herself from yelling.

“Chat,” she replied, gently pushing him away from her to relieve her shoulder.

He didn’t seem to get the message, because that just caused him to cling even harder. “I was so worried,” he answered, claws clinging to the back of her suit. “It wasn’t until I got here that I realized you might not come. I figured you must have gotten hurt, or something, and that’s why you’ve been gone.”

Ladybug frowned, trying to ignore the guilt festering in her gut while simultaneously trying to endure the discomfort her shoulder felt. “Chat,” she tried again, trying to get away from his grip.

Chat eased up on Ladybug, pulling away slightly to give way to a big, toothy smile on his face. “It’s really good to see you, my lady.”

His hands resting on her shoulders felt like boulders, but the weight on her chest felt several times heavier, and for a moment Ladybug was scared her knees were going to give out from the physical burden of her emotions. “Chat,” she started, but words seemed to escape her grasp like sand falling through fingers. “I’m sorry about Arachnid,” she offered lamely, unsure of how to continue without sounding superficial. “I wanted to be there, I really did, but I-”

“Don’t worry about it, Ladybug,” Chat interrupted, placing a finger over her lips to silence her. “If you couldn’t come, it was probably for a good reason. I’m just glad you’re safe. But just so you know… “ His voice dropped dangerously low, and mischief tinted his eyes playfully. “You missed out on some quality Chat action.” He waggled his eyebrows flirtatiously, a grin plastered across his face.

Ladybug scoffed, and pushed his hand away with her own. “Oh, well, if that’s all I missed, then I guess I don’t have to worry about it,” she retorted, a sly smile returning to his own. 

Chat placed a hand over his heart, a pained expression flashing across his face. “Ouch,” he pouted, looking crestfallen. “You wound me, my lady.”

Something about the way Chat said the sentence flickered a sense of déjà vu across the back of Ladybug’s mind, but she pushed it away for the moment in favor of more pressing matters. “Anyways, speaking of Arachnid, did you…?”

Chat nodded, pointing to the ball of web stuck to his belt. He held it out to her, bowing deeply as he presented the small insect hidden within it, and Ladybug curtsied with a small laugh before taking it in her own hands to remove it from it’s webbed cage. With a pull of a few select strings, the cage was undone, and the corrupted butterfly flew past her eyes.

“You’ve done enough harm, little akuma,” Ladybug chanted, flicking the top of her yo-yo as the night was penetrated by it’s white luminescence, and with a rhythmic swing the akuma was consumed by the healing light only to be replaced by its pale duplicate. The butterfly flew past Ladybug’s eyes, and the feeling of completeness that she had been anticipating was finally brought to her. The whole ordeal was finally done with, and the last shred of danger from that dreadful day was finally dealt with - with the threat completely gone, the group that had been deeply affected by its tragedies could finally move on, and Ladybug would finally be able to forgive herself for all the pain that was caused by her absence that day. 

Chat must have been thinking along the same line of thought as Ladybug, because the relief was evident on his face as he kept a watchful eye on the fluttering insect. “It’s crazy how such a small creature can cause so much havoc,” he mused quietly, his face uncharacteristically solemn.

The creature flew out of sight, but the two of them stared at the empty space for a few more silent moments, quietly enjoying the subtle breeze and the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower as the city lights below flickered.

“Chat,” Ladybug whispered, voice low and afraid. She hated to break the silence, but she had to know. “We’re okay, right?”

Befuddlement riddled itself on Chat’s face, and his answer reflected as such. “What do you mean? We’re both standing right here. You seem okay to me.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.” It took every ounce of self-discipline she had to swallow the fire that sparked in her throat, frustration hammering against her heart. “This… Thing, between the two of us. A lot of stuff happened this week, and everything is just a little crazy, and I just want to make sure that everything is…. Okay.”

Chat didn’t reply, but the small smile he gave her was all the answer she needed. He leaned in close, closing the gap between the two of them, pressing chapped lips against her forehead, lightly brushing her bangs away. Ladybug could feel his eyelashes flutter close against the bare skin there, and in turn she closed her own eyes, the fondness of the kiss bringing her back to her room on that night. A fresh cut on her cheek, arm swollen from her wounds, an anxious boy emerging from her balcony, a warm pair of lips pressing against her forehead, arms wrapped tenderly around her in a warm embrace before solitude was granted from the empty breeze by her balcony window. 

The memory lingered even as Chat pulled away, and Ladybug kept her eyes closed, holding tight to that moment like it was a lifeline and she was dying, like if she opened her eyes now the boy behind that mask would be standing in front of her in this moment just as he had in that moment - bare of his mask and holding her close, nothing but trusting eyelids to hide the truth of who he really was.

Ladybug would have kept her eyes closed, locked in that moment with Chat once more, had the sky not been silenced by smoke, the stars losing their shine against the billowing blackness. A loud crash rang in Ladybug’s ears, followed by a faint ringing that ping-ponged against the inside of her skull incessantly, and a few frightened shrieks penetrating the scattered atmosphere.

The two superheroes turned their heads to the cause of the commotion, only to be granted the sound of alarms wailing in the distance, dark pillars of smoke rising ominously in the sky and a welt of anxiety growing in their guts like a tumor.

“Hey,” Chat murmured, pointing a claw towards the disaster. “Isn’t that where the train station is?”

Ladybug shot him a determined glance. She didn’t need to say anything, because Chat got the message; time to go. The two of them leaped off the side of the building in tandem, Chat following closely behind Ladybug as she swung low towards the scene of the accident.

It took a few minutes for the two of them to reach the incident, and when they got there the area was already closed off by bright yellow police tape. The entrance to the station was guarded by security guards, and there was an anxious man in a conductor’s hat that was feverishly trying to relay some sort of story to one of the local policemen. All of the action had gathered a crowd of civilians, despite the time of night, most of them anxiously whispering in hushed voices with words that Ladybug couldn’t quite discern.

Ladybug completely disregarded the police tape, lifting it up so that she could glide under it, Chat following in suit. She approached who she assumed was one of the train conductors, her presence immediately gaining their attention. “What happened here?”

“Ladybug! Oh, I’m so glad you’re here, you’re exactly what we need to fix this mess.” The train conductor reached down to grasp her hand, firmly shaking it in his own before doing the same for Chat. His panicked eyes seemed to calm as he did so, but the perspiration on his forehead clued Ladybug into the severity of the situation.

“We’re not sure how it happened, but we think a fuse blew somewhere in the control room. Normally, such a small malfunction would have been a minor oversight, but…” The man reached into his breast pocket, pulling out an already-damp napkin to dab the beads of sweat on his face. “Something sparked, and there was a small explosion, and we lost all control of one our trains. It’s gaining speed, and we can’t seem to be able to pull the brake on it.”

“We’ve confirmed that there are several civilians on board in the passenger carts,” the policeman cut in. “Normal people just wanting to get home after work. Our main objective is to escort them safely off of the train before it gets the chance to derail, but we can’t get any of our men on board while the train is so out of control.”

“Isn’t there supposed to be an emergency brake somewhere on the train?” Ladybug asked impatiently. 

“Sure,” said the conductor, nervously playing with his fingers. “But we can’t contact the conductor that’s on board, and if they haven’t pulled the brake yet then we need to assume that that is out of the equation. Something must have broken down, preventing them from using it.”

Chat finally piped up, scratching the back of his head nonchalantly. “How fast is this thing even going?”

The conductor shrugged. “About 60 miles per hour, currently. But it’s accelerating rather quickly. In fifteen minutes it could be breaking 150 miles per hour, easily.”

Chat gave a low whistle. “Yikes.”

Well, that was a problem. Ladybug tapped a finger to her chin thoughtfully, eyebrows scrunched in concentration. “How are we supposed to get on board, then…?”

Chat looked to the blackened sky, gloved thumbs hooking themselves to the edge of his belt. “Well, I have an idea,” he said calmly.

\----------------

A few minutes later, the two of them were balanced on Chat’s baton, Ladybug steadied on Chat’s lap with his gentle grip. The ground rumbled gently, a hum in the distance that grew increasingly louder with the passing seconds. Soon the railroad tracks in front of them began to shake, and the sounds of a giant machine whirring and chunking signaled the train’s passing at any moment.

“Chat, this is an awful idea.”

“What do you mean?” Chat scoffed. “I’m particularly fond of this idea. I think it’s going to work out great.”

“Catapulting ourselves at a speeding train isn’t exactly something I would call a good idea. It’s more like a death wish.”

Chat laughed, long and deep, and the force of it caused the whole baton to shake and vibrations to run up Ladybug’s spine. “You catapult me off into the distance on the daily, my lady. You get used to it.”

Ladybug opened her mouth to retort back a, _well yeah, but most of those situations weren’t lethal_ , but suddenly a gust of wind blew past her face as the train came speeding by, threatening to knock her off her balance had Chat not been holding her in place. Chat shifted his position, bouncing in place to gain momentum, and in a great show of strength he practically threw Ladybug up into the air. She landed a moment later, nearly losing her foothold as she stood, the whole world suddenly moving way too fast.

Chat landed a few feet away from her a moment later, on a different cart, baton in hand, standing with much less grace than he had exhibited when they were balanced on his weapon. The two of them wobbled for a moment, trying to adjust to the high-pitch wind whistling past their ears as they stood on top of the moving train.

Sixty miles per hour honestly didn’t seem that fast when it was just a number, but when faced with the actual consequences of such a speed, Ladybug was blown away. Almost literally - the wind was punishing, and it took every muscle at her core to be able to stand upright. How did people stand on moving trains in those old black-and-white cowboy movies? Ladybug decided that when she made it out of this situation, she was going to sue Hollywood for lying to the general public.

Chat shouted something to Ladybug, but his voice was swept away by the wind, leaving his words empty. She tried to yell something in return, but she found that it was hard to even hear herself above the screaming of the wind in her ear, and she settled for shuffling closer to Chat, trying her best not to fall over.

Chat pointed towards his feet, revealing a space between the two train carts where an opening allowed entrance inside. Carefully, he lowered himself down, balancing on the railing that connected everything together. Ladybug finally managed her way over, and Chat reached up to grab her waist as she hopped down so that she landed safely. They exchanged nods, and Chat opened the door to the cart in front of him, relieved to finally be safely inside the train.

Inside, people were huddled together anxiously, glancing out the windows as the terrain sped by them. Several conductors were going around and trying to give what little comfort they could to their passengers, despite the apprehension that was obviously wracking their own bodies. Between the booths, there were several tables lined with white cloth, untouched plates of food riddled across some of them.

“This must be the dining cart,” Chat noted, eyeing some of the pastries as he walked by.

“Which means we’re close to the engine room,” Ladybug replied, scanning the room for whoever seemed to be in charge. She grabbed Chat’s wrist, pulling him towards the front of the train cart. “Come on.”

The two of them hopped from cart to cart, until finally Ladybug slid open a door that revealed a hurried engineer pulling at important-looking levers and taking notes of pressure gauges on what seemed to be a massive control panel. The engineer was so sidetracked with what she was engaged with that she didn’t even notice their entrance, and Ladybug gave a polite cough to alert her to their presence.

“Ah! Ladybug!” The lady pulled herself away from her work to stand up straight to meet the heroes, and Ladybug could see small scuffs of what seemed to be grease smudged on her face and jeans. She adjusted her glasses, pushing them the bridge of her nose. “How did you… Never mind, that’s not important. I’m glad you’re here.”

She pulled the two of them farther into the room, sliding the door closed behind them. “I don’t know what you’ve heard so far about the situation, but truth be told, we’re in worse condition that we may have let on.” Pushing past Chat and Ladybug once more, she ran to the front of the engine room again, tapping against different buttons and adjusting all sorts of mechanisms that were way beyond Ladybug’s comprehension.

“Currently, we just broke a speed of 100 miles per, and there’s a sharp 70 degree turn coming up in the next 15 minutes or so.” She didn’t turn to face her companions, but lowered herself to the ground to undo a panel below the controls of the train. “Long story short, we need to slow down in order to make that turn. As fast as we are right now, we run a high risk of derailing the tracks, and that puts a lot of danger on everyone aboard the train.” Her voice was muffled as she slid her upper body inside to work, adjusting the multi-colored wires as she focused. “The emergency brake, er, failed when I tried to pull it, so I’m trying to manually override it from the inside. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to manage it in time.”

Most of the mechanic said flew right over Ladybug’s head, but what she did manage to catch didn’t sound exactly like good news. “What do you mean, the emergency brake ‘failed’?”

Without stopping her work, she pointed to a lever across the room, detached from the ground from wherever it came. “The whole thing just snapped in half.”

Chat swallowed hard. “What can we do?”

For the first time since they arrived, the engineer stopped moving, looking directly at both Chat and Ladybug. “Honestly?” She asked, biting the inside of her lip, still halfway beneath the control panel. “If we can evacuate the people on board, we can handle the loss of a single train. My boss won’t be too happy about it, but the people come first.”

Ladybug nodded, looking to Chat with determination. He returned her look with a nervous glance, looking uneasy about the situation. “How in the world are we supposed to evacuate a mass of people off of a speeding train?” He whispered to Ladybug fervently. “You might as well have asked us to empty out a beehive without getting stung.”

He had a point. Ladybug scoured the edges of her mind, trying to work out a plan that would manage to clear out the train without taking up too much time. If they were going slower, they could just toss the people out of the train in intervals, but at 100 miles per hour they would be better off just snapping everyone’s arms in half. Chat and Ladybug would be able to manage the jump, but at best they would only be able to carry one or two people with them on the way out (and Ladybug might not have been able to even do that, with the injury she sustained on her shoulder).

Ladybug gritted her teeth in frustration; all of her plans involved slowing the train somehow, and at the moment that was probably out of the question. Time was running short, and as she spent more time thinking on an idea she lost more and more of her options. If only she could at least stop the gradual acceleration, or maybe slow down at least part of the train--

And idea struck her like a bullet, and she turned to Chat with exhilaration. “Come on, we need to get everyone to the back of the train.”

It didn’t take much convincing to get people to move, but the real problem was trying to transport people from cart to cart. No one wanted to be rushed through a door with no actual walkway on the other side, and the speed of the trees whizzing by didn’t make it any easier. One by one, Chat and Ladybug led people across the thing railing, guiding them to the caboose of the train, crossing railways after railway. It was a group effort, and it took a lot longer than what Ladybug was comfortable with - that corner was coming fast, and she was acutely aware of all the minutes wasting away before the train would inevitably derail.

They checked and double checked all the carts, making sure that no one was left behind; the caboose was filled to the brim with people, and there was almost no room to wiggle. When Ladybug was sure that every last passenger on board was in the caboose, she waved Chat over to her.

“What now?” He inquired, cat ears twitching in agitation. “I sure hope there was more to this plan than just letting everyone crash in the same area rather than all over the place.”

Ladybug nodded, sliding open the door to the caboose and pointing below her. “You need to destroy the beams connecting the caboose to the rest of the train. Then the caboose will slow down and eventually stop, and we can get everyone out of here.”

Chat blinked. “What about the mechanic?”

Ladybug blinked in return. “Who?”

“You know, the mechanic. The nice lady at the front of the train.” Chat shifted his weight from leg to leg, eyes widening in shock. “You didn’t forget about her, did you?”

Ladybug spat a swear word under her breath, turning her head over her shoulder to look back towards the front of the train. She had totally forgot about her.

The ground below their feet began to feel unlevel, and the part of Ladybug’s brain that wasn’t overloaded with panic managed to communicate that the train was reaching an incline. If she didn’t go get the engineer immediately, it would be hard to reach her with enough time to make it back to the caboose, and as it was there was no guarantee that she would be able to save everyone.

Hair whipped against her face frantically, and Ladybug grinded her teeth together as she furiously tried to control the adrenaline rushing through her system. The train was gaining speed dramatically, and Ladybug could tell by the trees whipping past them that they were going a lot faster than they were just a few minutes ago. The tracks beneath their feet rattled, and the blurriness of the world outside of the train almost gave Ladybug a headache. The choice to go back and rescue one person would be a lot easier if the only person she would be endangering was herself, but Ladybug couldn’t risk losing all the other passengers - and she wouldn’t. She absolutely refused to do as much.

She knew what her choice was the minute Chat had told her she had forgotten the engineer. She also knew that Chat wasn’t going to like it. 

Ladybug whipped her yo-yo off her hip, heaving it to the sky as it emitted its own vibrant light. “Lucky Charm!” The light began to take form into a tangible shape, and soon it dropped into the palms of her open hands.

The tip of Chat’s tail twitched. “A sled?”

Ladybug could work with a sled. It was made of bright red plastic, the kind of cheap stuff that parents buy for their parents on a snow day. A grin swept across her face. “Perfect.” For once she actually knew what to do with the item without having to think too extensively about it.

“Uh, Ladybug,” Chat said, pointing a lazy finger to her creation. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any snow around here.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ladybug retorted, waving him off the subject. “Look, you need to destroy the connecting cables between the two carts. Right now.”

Chat look taken aback, almost offended. “What about you?”

Ladybug bit back her exasperation as best as she could, but fire was still in her voice, and it took all she had not to spit it at him. There wasn’t any time for this. “Chat, please. Now!”

Something unreadable flashed in his eyes, but he raised an unwavering fist into the air. His voice echoed in Ladybug’s ears as he chanted out his power, “Ancient Destruction!”, loud and full of gravel. Black sparks flew off his gloves, and his shoulders tensed as he prepared to cut the lines between them with a well-aimed strike.

And then he made a choice; the same sort of choice Ladybug had just made not a minute prior - the kind that was both selfless and selfish for all the same reasons. With a leap, he pushed Ladybug out of the way, pushing her farther into the train cart behind her to make room for himself, standing in her place.

Safely out of the caboose, Chat swung low, destroying the metal cable that connected the carts together with the loud sound of metal ripping, black sparks flinging wildly before fizzing out and disappearing.

Ladybug landed on her back, her shoulder popping loudly as she collided with the ground. Immediately, her right hand swung to coddle the joint, putting pressure on herself as she bit down a surprised yelp. The pain was more than she anticipated, and she aggressively tried to gulp down some air in the hope that she could contain her outburst.

Above her, she could see Chat’s outline against the light of the doorframe, and Ladybug’s heart skipped several beats as she realized that the caboose was long gone - and so were the people in it. Her heart continued to skip a couple of more beats when she realized that Chat wasn’t with them. The floor beneath her spine was rumbling violently - without the added weight of the people and the loss of the entire caboose, the train was accelerating dramatically, continuing its pace up the incline.

Chat retreated from the door frame, turning around and looming over Ladybug. When he spoke, his voice was wretched, wracked with intense worry. “Lady, your shoulder…”

Ladybug kicked him in the shin.

Chat yelped loudly, springing his leg up to hold it in his hands, bouncing on one leg clumsily. “ _Ow!_ Ladybug, what the _hell_! What was that for!?”

“You idiot!” Ladybug tried to lean up so that she could stare him down, face to face, but her shoulder gave out and she landed back on the floor once more. “You were supposed to go with the people, what do you think you’re _doing_?”

Chat sighed, lowering his bruised leg back to the ground. Crouching down, he offered a hand to Ladybug, eyes trained on hers with dedication. “Ladybug, I’m not just about to _leave_ you. We’re partners.”

Ladybug blinked, suddenly at a loss for words. Chat’s voice was so full of concern it was almost severe, and the sound was so raw to her that Ladybug couldn’t find it in herself to chastise him for going against her plans. “Chat, I needed you to go with them. I don't know if I’ll be able to get us both out of here.” She sniffed, taking taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. “I don’t want to be the reason you get hurt.”

Chat did nothing but smile sadly in response. It was all the answer she needed.

Tentatively, timidly, she raised a hand, grasping on to his as he pulled her back up into standing position. “Has anyone ever told you how stubborn you are?” She asked, ignoring the bubble of emotion that was welting her heart.

“Only you, about every other day,” Chat replied, gripping her hand even tighter.

She smiled, starting to come back to normal quips that came with their dynamic. “Come on. We’ve gotta get to the engine room,” she managed, not letting go of his hand. She leaned down and picked up the sled that had been discarded to the edge of the room when Chat had pushed her over, and with that neatly tucked under her arm, she tugged Chat into a run towards the front of the train.

When they got to the engine, the engineer was still crouched beneath the control panel, frantically working with the wires and completely unaware of their presence. Ladybug threw the sled on the ground, detatched her fingers from Chat’s hand, and politely tapped the lady on her knee.

“Hey,” Ladybug said, getting her attention. “We need to get out of here. The rest of the passengers have already been evacuated, and we need to leave.”

“W-wait, hold on, just a moment!” Ladybug could hear the faint buzz of electricity humming from where the mechanic was sitting, followed by a few high-pitched ‘zaps’ and a suddening whirring noise roaring to life inside the train. A triumphant screech came from the mechanic, who sat straight up and nearly hit her head on the dashboard. “Got it!”

Chat’s tail swung low as he sauntered over. “Got…. What, exactly?”

The grin on the lady’s face was almost maniacal, given the fact that the three of them were about to reach their imminent doom any second now. “The brakes, of course! All we have to do is temper the charge with a conduit metal where the original emergency brake was, and it should trigger the failsafe.”

“Uh.” Chat held out his baton casually, not exactly sure what exactly the lady had just requested. “Would the metal on this work?”

She examined it for a moment before nodding her head. “No, it’s gotta be a… Softer metal. Something we can bend.” Chat defeatedly put his weapon back to his belt.

“Softer metal…?” Something clicked in the back of Ladybug’s mind, and she retreated to one of the diner carts. A moment later, she returned, spoon in hand.

“Ah, that’s perfect!” The engineer shouted, launching herself towards Ladybug to grab at the spoon. Once it was in her capable hands, she bent it sideways, and when she approached the emergency brake, she stuck it directly in the hole that the lever left when it was snapped in two.

Immediately, the train jerked, the wheels whistling against the strain of the brakes, and the crew on board all stumbled forward from the sudden movement. The engineer’s eye’s lit up as she looked out the window to see the terrain that was flying past them slow, everyone’s ears ringing from the protest of the massive machine.

“Huh,” Chat mused, tapping his chin lightly. “I guess there really is more than one way to use a spoon.”

“What was that?” Ladybug asked, scratching at her ears as if to escape the noise.

Chat shook his head. “Not important,” he laughed to himself. “Just something a good friend told me earlier.”

Ladybug ignored him, shrugging her shoulders and paying attention to the engineer once more. Her hopeful expression had been replaced by something much more dismal, and she adjusted her glasses, catching the reflection of the lights on the window. “We’re not gonna make it,” she whispered, emotions downtrodden. “We haven’t slowed down enough, and the corner is approaching dangerously fast.”

“Hey,” Ladybug said, placing a hand on the engineer’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got my own failsafe.” Pointing down to the sled on the ground, Ladybug gave a wink, earning a confused and slightly concerned look from the mechanic.

Ladybug plopped herself down on the front of the sled, gripping the front of it tightly. If she had calculated correctly, the train was going at enough of an incline to be able to slide their way down to the end of the train - fast enough to hop out the back and slide a few feet down the tracks, safely out of the way of the train derailment. The fact that there was now an added lurch from the emergency brakes was a bonus, allowing gravity to pull them down even further. Ladybug patted the seat behind her, inviting the two others to join her.

Chat was obviously aiming for the spot directly behind Ladybug, but the engineer beat him to it, slumping down right next to Ladybug and holding on to her tightly, with no reservations. Chat squeezed in right behind her, barely enough room for him to sit and hold on for dear life. The added weight of a third person was just what they needed (Ladybug was silently grateful that Chat decided to stick with her), and with the weight of gravity pulling them down, and Ladybug giving a hard kick to the floor, they were off.

The sled sped down from cart to cart, Ladybug swatting away any obstacles that may have gotten in their way with her feet. Hair whipped past her face and her eyes watered from the force of the wind, the three of them gaining more velocity than Ladybug had anticipated. Cart after cart they flew, Ladybug steering as best as she could with the little mobility she suffered. Her hands were starting to sweat from the anticipation and adrenaline of the knowledge that the train would be swerving around the corner any second.

A terrifying clunk from behind the three of them confirmed Ladybug’s suspicions, and the floor beneath them tipped and deleveled itself, stray objects in the train flying into the air. Ladybug crouched in tight to the sled, making her body as small as possible, trying to gain as much speed as she could. _Just five more carts_ , she thought to herself. The engineer was clutching to her back with all her strength, sending low signals of pain from Ladybug’s shoulder that reminded her they were still alive; _four more carts_. She could see the end of the train, where the caboose had been severed off, and failure never seemed so punishing; _three more carts_. Her hands slipped off her reign, leaving her out of control, leaving the three of them at the mercy of the train; _two more carts_. Ladybug could see the stars that were sewn into the night sky, or maybe they were just the ones flying around her eyes; _one more cart_.

Three things happened at once. 

A devastatingly loud crash shook the earth, shook the core of Ladybug’s being, shook the brain inside her skull with noises that were shards in her mind. It left her disoriented and lost, forcing her to shut her eyes in a time when she desperately wished them to be open; the hands that clung to her back dug into her suit, her skin, and the not-so-distant smell of smoke invaded her nostrils and left her feeling heavy and sedated.

The floor beneath them suddenly became air, and then metal, and then wood. The sled scraped against the impact of the earth, flinging their bodies too and fro, desperate hands trying to gain some sort of desperate control. The world thunked, thunked, thunked as the sled hovered over the tracks of the railroad, hitting every slab of wood on the way, each collision sending sharp signals to Ladybug’s body that caused her to ache all over.

The world became lighter and quieter as the screams of a young boy were forgotten, body limp and discarded behind the sled as it continued to press forward, starting to lose speed once the third body was lost from the back of the sled. A groan, a cough, an ‘oh my god’. Tremors of adrenaline shook themselves out of his fingers, her fingers, as they tried to grasp what exactly just happened.

When the world stopped turning, Ladybug was discarded to the side of the railroad tracks, sled next to her, beat up and dented in the middle. Her head thumped, and she felt a pulse everywhere in her body except for where it was supposed to be. 

The engineer was the first one to stand up, having received little of the damage due to being in the middle of a Ladybug-Chat sandwich. She wiped herself down, stretching her joints to check for any sprains. Once her self-evaluation was complete, she reached down to help Ladybug, who was still wasn’t exactly sure if she was alive.

Ladybug pressed a hand to her temple, trying to get her head to stop beating. “Mgggghhwwhere’s Chat,” she groaned, sitting herself up.

“He, ah- fell off,” the engineer gasped, out of breath from the whole ordeal.

Ladybug nodded (not a good idea, she noted, after the movement caused her head to explode), hoisting herself off the ground, managing to stand. She made her way towards Chat, who was laying in the middle of the tracks, body sprawled out dramatically. Her heart dropped into her gut for a moment before she saw him stir in her direction.

“Ladybug,” he moaned, eyes squeezing shut. “That was an awful idea.”

“What do you mean?” Ladybug scoffed, smile tugging at her lips. “I was particularly fond of that idea. I think it worked out great.”

Chat gave a sort of half-laugh, squinting his eyes to look at Ladybug. “It was more like a death wish.”

She leaned down and offered him a hand, and he tentatively grasped at it, allowing himself to be pulled up by Ladybug. “Next time,” he said, grunting loudly as he stood, “I vote that we just catapult ourselves off of the train. It’s a lot less dangerous.”

Ladybug smiled, giving him a hearty swat on the chest. “Next time, I vote we battle an akuma. At least then we don’t have to deal with normal, non-magical disasters.”

Chat sighed, leaning up against Ladybug to help him stand. “That’s fair. I can dig that.” He clonked his head against hers, closing his eyes and breathing hard. “But first I need a catnap.”

The two of them hobbled over to the engineer and the sled, and inquired if she was alright. She responded that she was fine, and she felt a lot better than the two of them looked, and she thanked them profusely for saving the day as per usual.

“No problem,” Ladybug answered lazily, exhaustion hitting her like a ton of bricks. “Let’s just get back to town and let the police know what happened.” _Then we can go to bed_ , she thought bitterly.

“We should also probably find that caboose somewhere,” Chat said nonchalantly, raising a hand up to his mouth to yawn.

“Oh, yeah. That too,” Ladybug agreed.

She eyed the broken sled for a moment, curiosity getting the better of her. “Hey.” She nudged Chat in the ribs, getting a surprised ‘oof’ as he held the spot with his hand. Ladybug made a mental note not to do that again - he was probably super bruised from the fall, and she didn’t want to make him feel any more pain than he already did.

“What?” He responded, gently rubbing the spot she elbowed him at.

“Do you think…”

His eyes met where hers were staring. “Huh. I’m not sure.” He scratched the back of his head, deep in thought. “I mean, maybe. But then again, there was no akuma. It’s hard to tell.” He shrugged, cat ears falling back. “Worth a shot, I guess.”

Ladybug picked up the ripped plastic in her hands, weighing it carefully. With a thrust, she threw it into the air (the movement cracking nearly every bone in her back in the process, _ouch ouch ouch_ ), and the light that it once came from reclaimed it, exploding into dust as Ladybug cheered it on with her catchphrase.

“Miraculous Ladybug!” 

The light dispersed, surrounding the area like a wave in the ocean, cleaning the rubble and running its warmth across their bodies, instantly relieving Ladybug of the constant nag of pain in her head. The lead that coated her bones melted away, and her muscles were filled with an energy that she thought she’d never feel again. The charm didn’t make all the pain dissipate (after all, it was magic made to combat the effects of magic, not regular natural disasters), but it was enough to make Ladybug more alert of her surroundings and let herself ease back up into her body without fear of pushing herself too far. It felt like she had dipped herself in warm milk, lightening up the bruises and coating her aches with comfort.

The magic left all too soon, but the effects of it still buzzed in her ears, and when she opened her eyes she was almost surprised when she didn’t see the train sitting on the tracks in front of her, fully intact and definitely not exploded into little bits. Ladybug guessed it would be too much to ask - it made sense, after all. The sled was magic, so any negative effects it caused on their bodies would be eased; the train was, unfortunately, all too real and plain, and was still left on the other side of the tracks, pathetic pumps of smoke choking out of it.

Her earrings beeped, signaling to Ladybug that it was about time to skedaddle. She motioned to the engineer, whose eyes were wide with wonder as she stared at where the now-faded magic had once been. “You can manage yourself from here, I hope? We’re kind of on a tight schedule,” she said apologetically.

The engineer nodded, eyes still stuck to the starry sky. “Yeah, I’ve got to call my associates anyways. We’re gonna be pulling an all-nighter to figure out why the train went hay-wire.” She turned to Ladybug and Chat, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “We’ll take care of the passengers that were on the caboose. They shouldn’t be too far behind us.” She grabbed at Ladybug’s and Chat’s hands, shaking them rigorously. “Thank you, for tonight. You really saved a lot of people a lot of grief.”

Chat smiled sheepishly, lowering himself into a bow. “It was our pleasure, Miss Engineer. It’s all in the job title.” Straightening himself out, he glanced at Ladybug, and then to her earrings - another beep. He gave her a knowing look, and without a word they turned to follow the tracks back to the city.

At some point, they ran past the caboose still stacked full of anxious people, but they left it to it’s own devices. If Ladybug was going to make it back to Paris before her disguise faded away, then there wasn’t any time to spare on helping people who were already safe. They flew by it without a second glance, feet thumping hard against the earth as they ran.

Ladybug’s earrings had beeped two more times by the time they made it to the station (Chat’s ring had beeped once), and with a vigilant swing of her yo-yo, Ladybug flung herself to the top of the nearest building. The rooftop was clear of people, and she couldn’t help but sigh with relief. It had been a long night, and she was more than ready to become Marinette again.

She heard Chat fall into step behind her as the last warning beep of her earrings was issued, but she wasn’t worried. As her mask faded and her normal clothes revealed themselves after the spots fell away, Marinette turned around to see Chat sitting on the edge of the roof, looking out to the skyline beneath him. His ring beeped.

“Chat,” she said patiently, walking towards him.

“I didn’t look,” he said quickly, and she could see his body tense up. “Promise.”

She knelt down, her eyes level with the back of his blonde hair. “I know,” she said simply. 

Thoughts raced in her head about the night before; it seemed like a lifetime away, but she remembered the way he held her so carefully and earnestly as if it had only just occured, as if he could be holding her right now. What would he say if he knew that it wasn’t Ladybug, but Marinette leaning beside him? What would he do if he turned around and discovered the honest truth about who she really was?

It was taking every last bit of strength Marinette had to not wrap her arms around his waist like she did that night. She bit back the urge to lazily trace circles at the nape of his neck, to tug at the end of his messy hairline. She absolutely resisted the need to let her head rest on the back of his, and under no circumstances did she allow herself to lean against him and breath in the smell of sweat mixed in with the scent of cinnamon shampoo.

His ring beeped. Her eyelids closed. She gave in, letting her body slump slowly against his, and he flinched. “Ladybug?”  
“Sorry,” Marinette breathed, digging herself into his shoulder. “I just need a minute. I’m exhausted.”

“Ah-that’s fine,” Chat said, though his voice was a bit strained. “It’s just that what you’re leaning against is really, really sore.”

Marinette immediately retracted her head, and she could see Chat’s back tremor slightly from the movement. Curiously, she poked a finger lightly at his back, tapping right beneath his shoulder. Chat’s breath hitched, and his leather tail shocked itself straight, and Marinette could hear a groan hide at the back of his throat.

“Chat, unzip your suit,” Marinette swallowed, tugging at the fabric on the back of his neck.

The hair at the back of his neck stood up straight. “Ooh, I didn’t know we were already far enough in our relationship for this, My Lady,” he teased, tugging at the bell on his neck.

Marinette poked him hard in the ribs, and Chat let out a pained yelp. “F-fine, geez,” he breathed, unzipping his front. “Feisty.”

As he tugged at his sleeves to reveal the muscles on his bare back, Marinette gave a grieved gasp. His back was spotted with dark bruises, spots in the skin where the blood vessels broke and gave way to an aching collage of purples and greens. Marinette traced a gentle finger around the outline of them, careful not to press too hard, following the lines of where they ended and where they begun. There were perfect edges of the bruises, angles where the bleeding stopped; she instantly knew how he acquired the blemish, and her heart throbbed.

The bruises were in the definite shape of the railroad tracks; little wooden slabs that smacked against his skin and created perfectly square welts that seemed to mimic the exact shape of the tracks. They were worn at an angle, the rectangular bruises wrapping themselves from the lower half of his right shoulder and continuing until they reached the underside of his arm, fading away where his back and his stomach met. Marinette could tell exactly where he hit the railroad at, and he must have hit it hard if it left such an physically impression on him.

Another beep came from his ring. “Is it bad, doctor?” Chat asked mockingly, wearing a playfully wounded tone on his voice. “Tell me, am I going to live?”

“If you don’t stop messing around, I’m going to smack you right in the middle of this giant bruise you have,” Marinette laughed. “You’ll be fine. Just take an ice bath when you get home. And try to sleep on your stomach tonight.”

He nodded, rolling his arms back into his sleeves and zipping the bell back up to his neck. “If that’s what the doctor orders,” Chat said. And then, “Is it really that bad?” he added, a little more seriously.

“It looks worse than what it is, but you’re going to be sore for the next few days,” Marinette responded carefully. 

He threw his head back lazily, eyes shut tight. “Ugh,” he groaned, dropping his shoulders. “Wasn’t your crazy ladybug magic supposed to heal stuff like this? You’re slacking, Ladybug.”

The words hurt a little more than what Marinette felt he intended, and she tried to shrug it off. He wasn’t wrong - she totally foo-barred the last akuma, and because of it she was still suffering from a bad shoulder. Marinette bit the inside of her cheek. “Yeah, and your suit is supposed to protect you from injuries like that as well, but you hit that track really hard. I’m surprised you didn’t break any bones.”

She sighed, standing herself up and resting a hand on Chat’s blonde head. “You really shouldn’t have followed me off the caboose,” she whispered. “At least then you wouldn’t be all banged up.”

Chat almost purred in response, pressing up against the hand on his head, eyes still closed. “Probably,” he agreed, a smile distorting what was probably supposed to be an apologetic face. “But I wasn’t about to let you have all the glory.”

Marinette sighed. She knew that that wasn’t the only reason he pushed her out of the way like that, but she didn’t want to think about it. It was starting to make her head hurt again. 

She lightly ruffled the hair between his cat ears as his ring beeped one last time. “Goodnight, Chat,” Marinette muttered sweetly, letting her hands drift away from him. She had turned around and was about to head home when his voice surprised her.

“Ladybug.”

The tone of his voice was low and hushed, and it punched Marinette back into that moment in her bedroom, forcing her to stop dead in her tracks.

He was quiet for a moment, head down and hands clenched on his knees. When he spoke, it was painfully sincere, and it caused Marinette’s heart to clench. “You know I would do anything for you, right?” 

Her throat closed tight. “I know,” she whispered, bringing a shaking hand to her lower lip.

“Then you know that I won’t leave you like that,” he continued, voice terrifyingly steady. “My safety is not worth more than yours.”

Marinette breathed in tightly as she realized just how much she disagreed with that statement, but she stayed silent. She didn’t feel the need to tell him exactly how much she cared for him, nor did she feel the need to express exactly how far she would go to ensure his safety. She especially didn’t want to tell him how she didn’t deserve his adoration or his praise, and how she was the reason he was always getting hurt in the first place, and how he deserved much, much better than what she could ever hope to offer him. 

She bit her tongue and her better judgement, trying to will her feet back into walking.

The two of them sat there in the silence for a while, the sounds of the night wrapping itself around them. Chat’s ring gave another soft beep, and Marinette’s shadow intensified as it was silhouetted by the green flash behind her that noted his transformation. Her tongue felt numb.

“Goodnight Chat,” Marinette whispered again, finally pushing herself towards the end of the roof.

“Goodnight, Ladybug,” he whispered in turn, staring off into the sky.

Adrien was still on the roof several minutes after Ladybug left, enjoying the nip of the cold air on his bare arms, contemplating about the day he just experienced. He thought about Ladybug, and he thought about Marinette, but after all was said and done, all he was really thinking about was his bed.

(That night, he slept on his stomach.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first things first, i want to formally apologize to any ferroequinologists that may or may not have read this chapter. im sorry for ruining trains in such a disgraceful way
> 
> you guys........ i wanted to post this chapter a LONG time ago. honestly, this chapter wasnt really supposed to happen, but i needed chat and ladybug to interact with each other and once they got going then they just wouldnt _shut up._
> 
> anyways, somehow it ended up being over 14k words. uh. thats three times as large as the previous chapters, for those of you crunchin the numbers at home. so if u were wondering why it took so long, its bc u essentially got THREE chapters instead of one.................. yikes
> 
> im never doing this again


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